LIBRARY 
 
 .UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 DAVIS 
 
AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph. D. 
 
Hmerican Crisie Biographies 
 
 Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph.D. With the 
 counsel and advice of Professor John B. McMaster, of 
 the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Each i2mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price 
 $1.25 net; by mail, $1.37. 
 
 These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive 
 history of the great American sectional struggle in the form of readable 
 and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the co-operation 
 of many competent writers, as will be noted from the list given below. 
 An interesting feature of the undertaking is that the series is to be im 
 partial, Southern writers having been assigned to Southern subjects and 
 Northern writers to Northern subjects, but all will belong to the younger 
 generation of writers, thus assuring freedom from any suspicion of war 
 time prejudice. The Civil War will not be treated as a rebellion, but as 
 the great event in the history of our nation, which, after forty years, it 
 is now clearly recognized to have been. 
 
 Now ready : 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. By ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER. 
 Thomas H. Benton. By JOSEPH M. ROGERS. 
 David G. Farragut. By JOHN R. SPEARS. 
 William T. Sherman. By EDWARD ROBINS. 
 Frederick Douglass. By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. 
 Judah P. Benjamin. By PIERCE BUTLER. 
 
 In preparation : 
 
 John C. Calhoun. By GAILLARD HUNT. 
 Daniel Webster. By PROF. C. H. VAN TYNE. 
 Alexander H. Stephens. BY Louis PENDLETON. 
 John Quincy Adams. By BROOKS ADAMS. 
 John Brown. By W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS. 
 William Lloyd Garrison. By LINDSAY SWIFT. 
 Charles Sumner. By PROF. FRANKLIN S. EDMONDS. 
 William H. Seward. By EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Jr. 
 Jefferson Davis. By PROF. W. E. DODD. 
 Robert E. Lee. By PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE. 
 Stephen A. Douglas. By PROF. ALLEN JOHNSON. 
 Thaddeus Stevens. By PROF. J. A. WOODBURN. 
 Andrew Johnson. BY WADDY THOMPSON. 
 
 To be followed by : 
 
 Henry Clay Edwin M. Stanton 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant "Stonewall" Jackson 
 
 Wade Hampton Jay Cooke 
 
AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 by 
 PIERCE BUTLER 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 .UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
Copyright, 1906, by 
 GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 
 
 Published, May, 
 
To the late 
 
 Ernest Benjamin Kruttscbnitt, 
 
 through whose generous and ever 
 
 kindly help it was made possible, 
 
 this book is gratefully dedicated. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 AMERICAN history, certainly, scarcely contains the 
 record of a personality more intrinsically interesting 
 than that of Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish lawyer 
 and statesman who, after conspicuous success at the 
 bar in this country, after continuous service in the 
 leadership of the Confederacy, again achieved the most 
 honorable triumphs at the bar of England. Were his 
 own life otherwise quite barren of interest which it is 
 not the mere story of his share in the great Civil War, 
 if properly told, should prove a fascinating record. 
 Therefore it is that the present writer is bold enough 
 to hope that the mere interest of the subject and the 
 substance of this narrative may help to atone for his 
 own errors and shortcomings. 
 
 But a further plea for the indulgence of my readers 
 is necessary. The extreme difficulty of collecting ade 
 quate and reliable materials for this biography can be 
 thoroughly appreciated only by those who may at 
 tempt, as I hope some will, to do better than I have. 
 Yet the general reader may judge of the obstacles to 
 be overcome in this respect when he learns that it was 
 Mr. Benj amin's rule to destroy at once all of his cor 
 respondence everything that might aid or enlighten a 
 biographer. Mr. Francis Lawley, who had begun the 
 task of collecting materials for a biography of Mr. 
 Benjamin, thus writes down what the latter told him 
 on April 27, 1883 : " Even if I had health, and desired 
 ever so much to help you in your work, I have no ma- 
 
8 PEEFACE 
 
 terials available for the purpose. I have never kept a 
 diary, or retained a copy of a letter written by me. 
 No letters addressed to me by others will be found 
 among my papers when I die. With perhaps the ex 
 ception of Mrs. Jefferson Davis, no one has many letters 
 of mine ; for I have read so many American biog 
 raphies which reflected only the passions and preju 
 dices of their writers, that I do not want to leave be 
 hind me letters and documents to be used in such a 
 work about myself. " Indeed, Mr. Benjamin was very 
 reserved concerning his private affairs, as well as 
 matters of professional or official business within his 
 ken. Just as he had devoted his last day in Eich- 
 mond to the burning of the secret service papers of the 
 Confederacy, so he was busy during the last weeks of 
 his life in destroying such private papers and letters as 
 remained ; and " when he died," writes Mr. Witt, one 
 of his executors, u he did not leave behind him half a 
 dozen pieces of paper." ' Moreover, his nephew, Mr. 
 E. B. Kruttschnitt, of New Orleans, wrote to Mr. Law- 
 ley : " I do not know what material you have at hand 
 to aid you in writing Mr. Benjamin's biography, but I 
 would say that I have always found it extremely diffi 
 cult to learn anything about his life prior to the Civil 
 War with any degree of accuracy. The older mem 
 bers of the family know nothing but the most general 
 facts, and have never been able to give me details 
 which would be extremely interesting in reference to 
 the political campaigns in which Mr. Benjamin was 
 engaged, his two candidacies, and election to the United 
 States Senate, etc. When I first joined the bar in this 
 city, in 1874, many of Mr. Benjamin's contemporaries 
 
 1 Lawley MS. ; see also Callahan, pp. 12, 20, 23. 
 
PEEFACE 9 
 
 were still alive, and some of them could speak most 
 interestingly about his earlier career, but all of these 
 persons are now dead [1897], and I do not know of 
 any one who from personal recollection could give any 
 matter of real importance to a biographer. . . . 
 The task of preparing such a work is one which I at 
 one time seriously considered, but I was appalled by 
 the amount of research and labor which would be nec 
 essary, in order to obtain the information required to 
 prepare such a work. My aunt, Mrs. J. P. Benjamin, 
 who was then alive, was quite desirous that I should 
 undertake the task when I last saw her on a visit to 
 Europe in 1886. Neither she, nor Mr. Benj ainin's 
 daughter, had any papers, however, which could be of 
 the slightest assistance to me, and I could not then see 
 where I could get the material for more than a short 
 sketch." 
 
 Confronted by a situation thus discouraging, I nev 
 ertheless persevered in my endeavor to find sufficient 
 material to give form to this work. A careful investi 
 gation of the valuable files of newspapers preserved, 
 or rather allowed to exist, in the City Hall in New Or 
 leans, revealed many details of interest about Mr. 
 Benjamin's earlier career in that place. I made an 
 examination of these newspapers from 1830 to 1865, 
 being especially careful for those of the years after 
 1842 ; and for this labor I was amply rewarded by the 
 mass of news and of editorial comments upon which 
 some of the earlier chapters of the present book are 
 based. 
 
 Through the generous help of the publishers and of 
 Mr. Kruttschnitt, I was enabled to secure the mate 
 rials, still quite inchoate, collected by Mr. Lawley, 
 
10 PEEFACE 
 
 which gave much most valuable information for the 
 treatment of Mr. Benjamin's career in England. 
 
 Again through the kindness of Mr. Kruttschnitt and 
 of other members of his family, I was given such de 
 tails of family history as they could furnish. And at 
 length they discovered and put at my disposal a most 
 interesting collection of letters, about two score, dating 
 from 1864 to 1883, from Mr. Benjamin to various 
 members of his family, the only considerable number 
 of letters I have been able to find. I have drawn 
 largely upon these, though always, I trust, with due 
 regard for the manifest wish of Mr. Benjamin to leave 
 unharmed the sanctity of family relations. 
 
 Mr. Max J. Kohler, of New York, also furnished me 
 with a copy of his excellent monograph upon Mr. Ben 
 jamin, and put me upon the track of several other 
 possible sources of information. The most fruitful of 
 these proved to be a small collection of letters from 
 Mr. Benjamin to Messrs. James A. and Thomas F. 
 Bayard. Mrs. W. S. Hilles, of Wilmington, Del., 
 daughter of Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, deserves especial 
 thanks for her care in copying and sending to me these 
 letters, as well as certain notes upon Mr. Benjamin 
 made by her father, which, though few in number, 
 contained items of great interest and importance. 
 
 Finally, the record of Mr. Benjamin's public acts as 
 an official of the Confederate Government, now in pos 
 session of the United States Government, at Washing 
 ton, is sufficiently full to enable one to follow this part 
 of his career with accuracy. Some of this material 
 has been published ' or is in course of publication by 
 
 1 The Hon. J. D. Richardson's Compilation of Messages and Papers 
 was not available until my task was practically completed. 
 
PEEFACE .11 
 
 authority of the Federal Government ; much, however, 
 still remains in manuscript in the archives of the 
 Treasury Department, to whose custodians I wish to 
 make acknowledgment for their courtesy and assistance 
 in the examination of the documents. 
 
 Since the author is, by ancient and precious custom, 
 permitted to introduce himself to the reader in his own 
 way in the preface, I may venture upon a word or two 
 of explanation in regard to the method of treatment 
 and the point of view that I have sought to maintain 
 in the following pages. First, as to the proportion or 
 amount of space devoted to the various periods of Mr. 
 Benjamin's life, I may say that I have tried to give 
 due preponderance to what seemed most vital and in 
 teresting. For example, the political career both be 
 fore and during the Civil "War has received fuller 
 treatment than the purely legal career. The signifi 
 cant characteristics of the great advocate, and the im 
 portant cases that should claim popular attention, have 
 been presented ; but the author has sought to avoid 
 technicalities of the law, that might be of doubtful 
 interest to a limited number of students ; for Mr. Ben 
 jamin was something more than a lawyer, and we 
 should but lose sight of the larger activities of the man 
 in attempting to make a professional study. It has 
 likewise seemed proper to treat in greater detail the 
 whole story of Mr. Benjamin's life in America ; for, 
 undoubtedly, it was in this land that he " found him 
 self." His fame was made before he went to England, 
 and his successes there were but the culmination, and, 
 indeed, the continuation, of those here. Though he 
 transferred his formal allegiance to Great Britain, 
 whose child he chanced to be, he could no more for- 
 
12 PEEFACE 
 
 get America than he could make the English forget 
 what they called his " American accent." 
 
 Secondly, it seems proper to say that the aim 
 of the book has been to treat quite frankly the life of 
 one who, active in the politics of a very stormy period 
 of our history, did not escape the criticisms and calum 
 nies of politics. Every charge against Mr. Benjamin 
 of any moment whatever, so far as known, has been 
 set down in these pages 5 where justification or excul 
 pation seemed proper, it has been attempted ; but 
 where his conduct seemed indefensible, no defense has 
 been made, merely the statement of such facts as 
 could be established. The character of the man, I 
 believe, should outweigh petty accusations ; hence I 
 have not wilfully neglected to notice them all where I 
 found them. Finally, in discussing the delicate polit 
 ical questions of the period from 1850 to 1865, I have 
 sought to present the view, as I conceived it, of the 
 South, but always with such comment as the fairer and 
 clearer vision of our own time appeared to call for. It 
 seemed futile to attempt to understand the Confederacy 
 if one treated it in hostile or unsympathetic mood ; it 
 seemed equally absurd and unworthy of history to 
 follow blindly the political teachings of apologists for 
 a lost cause. The most difficult matter, perhaps, has 
 been to present adequately the diplomatic history of 
 the Confederacy, so as to show, if possible, that be 
 cause she failed of securing that foreign recogni 
 tion which was the stake for which she played in 
 diplomacy, it does not follow as a necessary conse 
 quence that the fault was in the diplomacy. The his 
 toric prestige of success, of course, is with the Union 
 cause ; but it should not be forgotten that, though 
 
PREFACE 13 
 
 victory may follow the biggest battalions, the smaller 
 may have been ably commanded. 
 
 It remains for me to express my thanks for assist 
 ance of various kinds from the many to whom I have 
 found it necessary to apply in the course of this work. 
 The names of all I cannot give here ; but at least I 
 should not fail to mention Mrs. E. A. Bradford, of 
 New Orleans, widow of Mr. Benjamin's law partner 
 and intimate friend ; Mr. Joseph Lebowich, of Har 
 vard College, author of a useful Bibliography on Mr. 
 Benjamin, who has been most kind in putting at my 
 service materials and references collected by him ; 
 Mrs. Mary Pohlman, custodian of the archives in the 
 New Orleans City Hall, who assisted me greatly in my 
 search through the newspapers ; Mr. William Beer, of 
 the Howard Library, who has allowed the utmost free 
 dom in consulting the valuable collections there upon 
 the history of Louisiana ; and Mrs. Jefferson Davis, 
 who has written full and interesting letters, furnishing 
 details about one with whom she was so intimately 
 associated during Richmond's ordeal by fire. For care 
 in the reading and revision of the proofs, I must thank 
 Professor John R. Ficklen, of Tulane University. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHRONOLOGY 17 
 
 I. BIRTH AND TRAINING .... 21 
 
 II. LAW AND SUGAR 32 
 
 III. POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING . 64 
 
 IV. FROM STATE POLITICS TO THE SENATE . 96 
 V. COMMERCIAL INTERESTS . . . 113 
 
 VI. CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS . . 141 
 
 VII. IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE . . . 173 
 
 VIII. THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 . 191 
 
 IX. ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND SECRETARY OF 
 
 WAR 225 
 
 X. THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS . 259 
 
 XI. DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS WITH FRANCE 
 
 AND ENGLAND .... 283 
 
 XII. DARK DAYS IN EICHMOND . . . 327 
 
 XIII. STARTING LIFE ANEW .... 358 
 
 XIV. A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME . . 384 
 XV. CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENT . . 418 
 
 APPENDIX 441 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 442 
 
 INDEX 451 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1808 Philip Benjamin and Rebecca de Mendes, married shortly 
 before in London, emigrate to St. Thomas. 
 
 1811 Judah Philip Benjamin born in St. Thomas, August 6th. 
 
 1816-1818 The Benjamins remove to the United States, settling 
 first at Charleston. 
 
 1825 Benjamin enters Yale College, but leaves in 1827, without 
 taking a degree. 
 
 1828 Comes to New Orleans, earning his living by teaching, and 
 studies law as a notary's clerk. 
 
 1832 Called to the bar, December 16th, and three mouths later is 
 married to Natalie St. Martin. 
 
 1834 Benjamin and Thomas Slidell publish their Digest of 
 Supreme Court Decisions. 
 
 1842 Having made secure his position at the bar, Benjamin enters 
 politics ; elected to the lower house of the General Assembly 
 on the Whig ticket. 
 
 1844-1845 Delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. 
 
 1846-1847 Summons his mother and family from South Carolina, 
 and establishes them on " Bellechasse " plantation. Re 
 linquishes much of his law practice to devote himself to 
 sugar planting. Death of his mother, 1847. 
 
 1852 Elected to the State Senate ; to the Senate of the United 
 States; most influential delegate to the Louisiana Con 
 stitutional Convention. During this period is prominent 
 in the affairs of the Jackson Railroad and the Tehuantepec 
 Company. 
 
 1856-1858 Speech on the Kansas question in the Senate ; taking 
 sides in the growing bitterness of the slavery question. 
 The Whig party goes to pieces, and Benjamin finally be 
 comes a Democrat. 
 
18 CHEONOLOGY 
 
 1859 Reflected to the Senate. 
 
 1860 Split iu the Charleston Convention (April) of the Demo 
 cratic party. Benjamin takes sides against Douglas, and 
 approves of the secession of Southern delegates. Absent in 
 California as counsel in the New Almaden mines case when 
 Congress assembles. December 3d, takes his seat soon after 
 the meeting, and declares for secession. December 31st, 
 delivers a great speech in defense of the Southern position. 
 
 1861 South Carolina having seceded on December 20, 1860, 
 Louisiana follows, January 26, 1861. February 4th, 
 Benjamin and Slidell bid farewell to the Senate. Benjamin 
 returns to New Orleans, and on February 25th, is named 
 Attorney-General in the Confederate Cabinet. February 
 18th, inauguration of the provisional government of the 
 Confederate States. March 4th, inauguration of President 
 Lincoln. April 12th, firing on Fort Sumter. July 21st, 
 Bull Run. September 17th, Benjamin named acting 
 Secretary of War, and confirmed in the office by the 
 Confederate Senate in November. November-December, 
 Mason and Slidell sail as Confederate Commissioners to 
 England and to France respectively ; are captured by the 
 United States SS. Son Jacinto, and released upon the de 
 mand of England. 
 
 1862 January-February Confederate disasters at Roanoke Island, 
 Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson. Censure of Benjamin as 
 Secretary of War. February 22d, formation of the per 
 manent government of the Confederacy. President Davis 
 names Benjamin Secretary of State. August-September, 
 second battle of Bull Run, Lee crosses into Maryland, but is 
 checked at Sharpsburg or Antietam ; frustration of Con 
 federate hopes of intervention on the part of England or 
 France. September 22d, Lincoln issues Proclamation of 
 Emancipation. 
 
 1863 May IstnSd, Chancellorsville, death of Stonewall Jackson. 
 Lee invades Pennsylvania : July lst-3d, Gettysburg. 
 July 4th, fall of Vicksburg. The Confederate cause hence 
 forth really desperate, though the struggle is kept up with 
 vigor. 
 
 1864 March 3d, Grant appointed Lieutenant-General, assumes 
 command of Union armies ; in June he begins the attack 
 upon Richmond from the South. September-December, 
 Sherman advances to Atlanta. Duncan F. Kenner sent to 
 Europe with full powers by the Confederacy. 
 
CHBONOLOGY 19 
 
 1865 February 3d, fruitless conference between Confederates and 
 Lincoln at Fortress Monroe. April 2d, evacuation of 
 Kichmond, retreat of the Confederate Government. April 
 9th, Lee surrenders at Appomattox. April 14th, assassina 
 tion of Lincoln. May lOth-llth, capture of President 
 Davis. Benjamin makes his way to the Florida coast and 
 escapes, landing in England in September. 
 
 1866 June, Benjamin called to the bar in England. 
 1868 Publication of Benjamin on Sales establishes his reputation. 
 1872 Made Queen's Counsel ; his wrecked fortune is repaired. 
 1880 Severely injured by a fall from a tram-car in Paris. 
 
 1883 Ketires from practice, and in June bids farewell to the bench 
 and bar at the Temple banquet. 
 
 1884 May 6th, dies in Paris. 
 
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 BIRTH AND TRAINING 
 
 OF the ancestry of Judah P. Benjamin little can be 
 given with sufficient accuracy to warrant me in repro 
 ducing it. "I suppose there never was a family," 
 writes one of his nephews, " whose members seemed 
 to know so little of their own history. " Beyond the 
 fact that, on the mother's side at least, his family were 
 Portuguese Jews, little is known with certainty. Yet 
 some items of interest may be ascertained, and of 
 these I must first speak. 
 
 According to the recollection of one of the older 
 generation of the family still surviving (Mr. Benjamin's 
 niece), the home of Rebecca de Mendes, the mother of 
 Judah P. Benjamin, was near Finnsbury Circus, Lon 
 don. How many members of the family there were, 
 and what was their occupation, are points that are not 
 known. But it is clear that they were people of some 
 education and refinement, though probably poor. 
 There were several daughters in the family, and at 
 least one son. Tradition reports that two of the daugh 
 ters were remarkable for their beauty. Two of them 
 married West Indian planters and moved to the is 
 lands before the marriage of the youngest to Philip 
 Benjamin. The date of this union is uncertain ; but 
 
22 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 there seems reason to fix it not long before 1808. In 
 the materials collected by Mr. Lawley for his proposed 
 Life of Benjamin it is simply stated that " little is 
 known of his parents beyond a vague rumor that 
 when resident in London they occupied a shop in one 
 of the streets leading into Cheapside, near Bow Church, 
 where they made a little money by selling dried fruit." 
 Mr. Lawley knew Mr. Benjamin personally, and may 
 have had his authority for this rumor ; but it cannot 
 be verified ; and the present writer is inclined to the 
 belief that, though Philip Benjamin may have lived 
 near Bow Church, it was before his marriage. 
 
 When taking out his naturalization papers at Charles 
 ton, S. C., in 1826, Philip Benjamin stated that he 
 was then forty -four years of age. He would therefore 
 have been twenty-six in 1808. It seems hardly prob 
 able that he was married much younger than that ; and 
 it is positive that he and his wife went to the island of 
 St. Croix, or St. Thomas (there is some doubt as to 
 which), in 1808, where their eldest child, Eebecca, 
 was born in the following year. He was of a restless 
 disposition, a rolling stone, and apparently never suc 
 cessful, and so not long satisfied anywhere. The re 
 moval to the West Indian island may have been made 
 immediately after his marriage. And his selection of 
 the West Indies as a place in which to seek new fortunes 
 was not unlikely due to the fact that his bride had 
 relatives there who had prospered. At all events, 
 there are no certain evidences that the Benjamins lived 
 any part of their married life in England ; and their 
 story really begins in St. Thomas. 1 
 
 1 Benjamin himself declares for St. Thomas ; see below, Chapter 
 XIII. 
 
BIETH AND TKAINING 23 
 
 This island at the time was a British possession, 
 having been juggled about among the great powers 
 then engaged in the titanic wars of Napoleon. 
 Though small, and long since fallen from its high 
 estate, it had been and for a time continued to be some 
 what important as an entrepot for the thriving West 
 Indian trade, and as a base for naval operations. What 
 business the Benjamins were engaged in we do not 
 know : but they did not prosper. And being in very 
 straitened circumstances while there, they probably left 
 no such impression as would justify our putting trust 
 in the report that, some years ago, the house in which 
 they lived, and where their distinguished son came into 
 the world, could still be identified. 
 
 Judah Philip, the second child, was born in St. 
 Thomas, on August 6, 1811, and his early boyhood 
 was spent there. Nearly all the published accounts of 
 Mr. Benjamin state it was merely chance that he should 
 have been born under the Union Jack, since his parents, 
 sailing from England for New Orleans, stopped at St. 
 Thomas only because the British fleet was already 
 blockading the mouth ^of the Mississippi, previous to 
 the outbreak of the War of 1812. The facts thus far 
 given are certainly sufficient to disprove this statement : 
 there was no blockading fleet in 1808 ; and if it had 
 been Philip Benjamin's intention to go directly to the 
 United States, he could easily have done so. When the 
 removal was made is not altogether certain : dates as 
 early as 1816 and as late as 1825 have been suggested, 
 and by those who knew Mr. Benjamin in his youth ; 
 but the later date is altogether out of the ques 
 tion, since he always spoke as though he had been 
 brought to the United States when too young to re- 
 
24 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 member anything clearly about his first home. With 
 a man of Philip Benjamin's rather aimless habits, it is 
 not unlikely that the mere transfer of the islands from 
 England to Denmark, would have been sufficient to urge 
 him to move from a place where fortune had not smiled 
 on him ; and this would also point to the earlier date. 
 
 There was a brisk trade in those days between the 
 West Indies and the Carolinas, where some of Mrs. 
 Benjamin's relatives were already settled, one being a 
 merchant in Fayetteville, N. C. Philip Benjamin and 
 his family went to the Carolinas, and first settled at 
 Charleston. 
 
 Here they seem to have lived for some time, their 
 fortunes, as always, at a very low ebb ; for the father 
 was i i that rara avis, an unsuccessful Jew . ' ' The family 
 were strict Jews, and Mrs. Benjamin, at least, had a full 
 share of that pride which is a distinguishing character 
 istic of the well-bred of her race. Her granddaughter 
 remembers even now the stern and severe rule of the 
 old lady, resolved to hold her head high in spite of 
 poverty. On one occasion the prosperous sisters in the 
 West Indies, probably suspecting the true state of af 
 fairs, sent generous chests of linen and other luxuries. 
 Mrs. Benjamin never opened them, but returned them 
 with thanks, and the assurance that her needs were 
 provided for. But the less offensive kindness and 
 assistance of friends and relatives nearer at hand was 
 not rejected ; and to this the children owed their edu 
 cation. The family had increased since the move to 
 Charleston. Besides Eebecca and Judah, there were 
 two brothers, Solomon and Joseph, then Julia, Harriet, 
 and Penina, the last born in 1824, when Judah was 
 finishing his school-days. 
 
BIETH AND TEAMING 25 
 
 As a boy, his brightness and aptness had attracted 
 attention in Charleston. His preparation for college 
 was had in Fayetteville, N. C. , where he and his sisters 
 Eebecca and Harriet lived with relatives. The Fay 
 etteville Academy was one of the few institutions of its 
 kind in the South, one of the oldest, and probably the 
 best, with a full and good corps of instructors, and 
 nearly two hundred pupils. Perhaps we had best try 
 to look at Judah through the eyes of a schoolmate. 
 Mr. E. C. Belden, of Spout Spring, N. C., wrote as fol 
 lows ' in 1897 : 
 
 "In the year 1825 [1822?] Judah, with his brother, 
 Solomon, and sister, Hannah [Harriet], came to Fayette 
 ville, N. C., and lived with their aunt, Mrs. Wright, 
 and uncle, Jacob Levy, the former of whom conducted 
 a fancy dry-goods store, the latter a commission mer 
 chant and largely engaged in the West Indian trade. 
 Judah soon entered the Fayetteville Academy, and 
 was a pupil of the Eeverend Colin Mclver. In many 
 respects he was a singular boy. Eeserved in manner, he 
 never had an intimate associate while at school ; and 
 during recess, when the boys were at play, he was 
 making preparation for the coming lesson. As a 
 scholar he was uniformly at the head of his class, and 
 was the brightest intellect in the school. His residence 
 in Fayetteville was short, about eighteen months. 
 
 "Judah and myself were classmates during his 
 school-days in Fayetteville. Solomon, Judah' s brother, 
 
 1 Lawley MS., from which, and from Mr. Krnttschnitt's family I 
 get most of the details for this chapter. Allowance must be made 
 for certain errors of memory on the part of this octogenarian class 
 mate, errors which 1 have corrected as far as possible by insertions 
 in brackets. 
 
26 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and the writer were great friends. I previously stated 
 that Judah was the brightest boy in the school ; I will 
 now add, I never knew him to make an imperfect reci 
 tation, and the ease with which he mastered his studies 
 was a marvel to every one in the school, teachers 
 and all. 
 
 "I think I stated in my former note that I was 
 eighty-six, and that there was but little difference be 
 tween mine and Judah' s age. 
 
 "The i Fayetteville Academy' was established in 
 1796, and incorporated by act of the Legislature. The 
 town made a tax levy to purchase the site and erect the 
 building, and to the amount thus raised the leading 
 citizens of the place made generous contributions. 
 The school soon acquired distinction, and was largely 
 patronized by scholars from many of the Southern 
 states. Men of national renown, including Willie P. 
 Mangum, for many years Senator in Congress, and 
 William E. King, also a Senator, and Yice-President 
 of the United States, were prepared for college at this 
 school. The academy was destroyed in the fire of 
 1831, and never rebuilt. The number of scholars, in 
 both departments, at the time that Judah was a stu 
 dent, must have been between two and three hundred. ' ' 
 
 Scanty as are the facts here given of Benjamin's 
 schooling (we know nothing more), the letter itself is a 
 testimony, I think, to the simple thoroughness of the 
 training in this lost institution. After completing his 
 preparation at Fayetteville, young Benjamin returned 
 to Charleston. Thence he went to New Haven, Conn. , 
 and entered Yale in 1825. It has been repeatedly as 
 serted that the family was unable to pay the expenses 
 of his college education, and that he was again fortunate 
 
BIETH AND TKAINING 27 
 
 in finding generous friends. The Charleston tradition 
 is that the necessary money was supplied by Moses 
 Lopez, a wealthy Jewish merchant, and president of 
 the Hebrew Orphans' Aid Society. But Professor Sam 
 uel Porter, of Gallaudet College, Washington, who was 
 a member of his class at Yale, stated that ' i his expenses 
 were defrayed by a charitable lady of Massachusetts." 
 It is a matter of not much moment, indeed ; but the 
 inference from his own letter below is that neither of 
 these statements is correct. 
 
 From the records at Yale, it appears that Benjamin 
 attended the college for nearly three sessions, his name 
 appearing in the catalogues of 1825, 1826, and 1827. 
 There is no proof of his attaining really marked dis 
 tinction ; still it is a pleasure to note that there is 
 some tradition placing him among the best scholars, 
 and that this tradition is supported by the testimony of 
 Professor Simeon North, afterward President of Ham 
 ilton College, who was Benjamin' s " guardian" at 
 Yale, and who took charge of certain of his effects when 
 he left, including a Hebrew Psalter and a Berkleian 
 prize-book inscribed by President Day ' * for excellence 
 in scholarship." l Any laurels he may have won, 
 however, were blasted by a cruel calumny that was of 
 the spawn of bitter partisanship at the time of the Civil 
 War. I shall mention it and dismiss it here, though 
 events must be anticipated ; for it is pleasant to feel 
 that one has done with such a matter. 
 
 Just prior to the Civil War, when political animosi 
 ties tarnished so many fair names and embittered so 
 many lives, a newspaper article purporting to come 
 from a classmate went the rounds of the Northern press 
 
 1 Kohler, Publications Amer. Jewish Hist. Soc., No. 12, p. 68. 
 
28 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 with the assertion that the needy Jewish student at 
 Yale had been both a desperate gambler and a thief. 
 One night after he had gone to bed, said the writer, 
 and when Benjamin believed him asleep, he had 
 caught his roommate going through his pockets : to 
 avoid exposure and summary expulsion, the young 
 man had left Yale. Immediately upon hearing of 
 this attempt to poison his life-story at the very source, 
 Mr. Benjamin employed counsel who, being in the 
 North, could best serve him in running the libel to 
 earth and prosecuting those responsible for it. Of the 
 advice he received from Charles O' Conor and S. M. 
 Barlow, his counsel ; of the peculiar embarrassment 
 of his position j and of the rallying of friends to his 
 side, one learns from two letters to his devoted 
 friends, James A. and Thomas F. Bayard. 1 The first 
 is dated at Montgomery, from the Department of 
 Justice of the Confederacy, March 19, 1861, and is in 
 answer to a letter from Mr. James A. Bayard of Feb 
 ruary 26th : 
 
 "I preferred a suit to an indictment for several 
 reasons, principally because it gave the man a better 
 chance to exhaust all possible means of proving the 
 truth, and thereby render it out of his power to say 
 that if he could have taken testimony under commis 
 sion, he would have succeeded in establishing a justi 
 fication of his infamous calumny. But O' Conor, in 
 stead of bringing suit, writes a letter to Barlow, . . . 
 the tone and temper of which are so manly and gen 
 erous, and at the same time so apparently discreet and 
 wise, that he has almost unsettled me. I shall advise 
 with my friends about it in New Orleans. . . . 
 
 1 Copies of these and other interesting letters were kindly fur 
 nished me by Mrs. W. H. Hilles, daughter of T. F. Bayard, Wil 
 mington, Del. 
 
BIRTH AND TRAINING 29 
 
 " I am decided in one conviction ; that it is not ad 
 visable to have any publication in any manner or form 
 on the subject, whether from myself or friends. I feel 
 fully your kind offer to make a communication to the 
 editor of the Confederacy [sic] but of what use, with 
 such infamous scoundrels as those who have evidently 
 delighted in circulating this attack, would it be to es 
 tablish the absolute impossibility by a comparison of 
 dates ? I left college in the fall of 1827, in conse 
 quence of my father's reverses rendering him unable 
 to maintain me there any longer. I was studying law 
 in New Orleans in February, 1828, and maintaining 
 myself whilst so doing, by giving private instruction 
 in two families in New Orleans. The statement in the 
 libel is that the facts occurred in the fall of 1828, with 
 one Dyer Ball, whose name I never heard before in my 
 life. Suppose all this shown in a publication by the 
 most conclusive proof. The next week the same men 
 come out and say they were mistaken in the year ; that 
 it was not in 1828, but in 1827 and the whole affair 
 again goes the round of all the newspapers at the North, 
 with the most malignant comments that can be in 
 vented. If I get friends that were college mates to state 
 that no such thing ever occurred, the answer will be 
 that only a few were engaged in the scheme for ex 
 posure of the culprit, and that they promised secrecy 
 as is asserted in the libelous article itself. I am satis 
 fied that nothing is advisable, unless it be a suit that 
 will sift the whole story, so as to make it impossible to 
 evade the result of verdict by cutting off all equivoca 
 tions. Yet O 7 Conor, who agrees that this is the only 
 mode, advises so strongly against it, that I must mis 
 trust my own judgment. 
 
 "I send you an article cut from the New Orleans 
 Delta of 1st March, 1 which appeared since I left there. 
 I have but a single copy, as the paper was forwarded 
 to me marked, by whom I know not, which with the 
 exception of some trifling errors, gives you a fair his- 
 
 1 Should be 2d March. 
 
30 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 tory of my life, leaving out of course the emphasis of 
 eulogium contained in it. One error is of time I 
 have lived in New Orleans thirty-three years instead 
 of twenty-seven I did not pay my way through school 
 and college by labor, but was thrown on my own re 
 sources early in the fall of 1827, when I was just six 
 teen years old, having been born on 6th August, 1811. 
 . . . [The article] seems to show O' Conor's view to 
 be right, but I will not determine finally till I consult 
 my friends further.' 7 
 
 Added reflection led him to the view that Mr. 
 O' Conor and the Delta were right, and that it were 
 better to rest his defense on the honor and upright 
 ness of his life rather than on any mere specific attack 
 upon this calumniator. The suit at libel, moreover, 
 would have been a practical impossibility, for the next 
 letter, to Mr. T. F. Bayard, is dated April 5th, less 
 than a fortnight before the firing on Sumter. In it he 
 says : " I have your kind favor of the 30th ultimo, and 
 am exceedingly touched by the warm and genial sym 
 pathy which it expresses. When I look back a few 
 weeks I am myself somewhat ashamed that I could 
 have allowed myself to be moved so deeply by such a 
 cause, and yet there was something so inexpressibly 
 loathsome and revolting at the bare idea of having 
 one's name published in the newspapers in connection 
 with so degrading a charge, that it is scarcely to be 
 wondered at, that feeling should usurp the place of 
 judgment. However, I have determined to yield to 
 the advice of my friends, and to let a lifelong career 
 of integrity and honor make silent and contemptuous 
 answer to such an attack. If anything could compen 
 sate for the mortification necessarily incident to such 
 an abominable outrage, it is the constant receipt from 
 
BIETH AND TBAINING 31 
 
 valued friends of just such letters as that which I have 
 been gratified in receiving from you. I, however, 
 needed nothing from you nor from any one bearing 
 your name to feel assured in advance of the light in 
 which such a publication could be received. " 
 
 The article in the Delta to which reference is made, 
 showed that Mr. O' Conor's advice had indeed been 
 judicious, and with this quotation we may close the 
 account of the student days at Yale: "'We have 
 seen a letter from the Hon. J. P. Benjamin to a gentle 
 man in this city, announcing his intention to depart 
 from the established rule of his life so far as to prose 
 cute for libel some one or more of the more prominent 
 of those who have given publicity to the infamous 
 calumny in reference to his conduct at Yale College 
 years ago.' The above, from the Louisville Courier, 
 relates to one of the vilest and most infamous attempts 
 ever made to blacken the reputation of a public man 
 whose great talents, astonishing energy, patriotic and 
 dignified bearing in the public councils have elicited 
 the applause and admiration of the whole country. 
 The story was hatched by Abolition malice, and the 
 place and time of the incidents in it were selected with 
 cunning regard to the difficulty of refutation. . . . 
 [The calumny] has served to revive, in the memories 
 of all who are familiar with his remarkable career, the 
 recollection of the innumerable instances of his gener 
 osity, his devotion to his relatives and friends, the 
 prodigality, we may say, of his beneficence, and the 
 remarkable absence of all sordidness in his whole na 
 ture and conduct." 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 LAW AND SUGAR 
 
 FROM New Haven Benjamin returned to his family ; 
 but he was of a spirit too self-reliant and proudly in 
 dependent to trust to them for support, even if his 
 father had been in a position to help him. Philip 
 Benjamin had a small shop in King Street, Charleston, 
 but had made no success of his business. The eldest 
 daughter, Eebecca, to whom Judah was particularly 
 attached, had been married, while he was at Yale, to 
 Mr. Abraham Levy, in 1826. And it was not long 
 after this that the rest of the family removed to Beau 
 fort, S. C., where they lived for ten or fifteen years, 
 and where, during the latter part of this period, they 
 were supported by Judah, the father having proved 
 utterly unable to maintain them. The boy could not 
 have remained long in Charleston, for he came to New 
 Orleans early in 1828, arriving, it is said, with less 
 than five dollars in his pocket. 
 
 In his need, any employment was welcome, and in 
 spite of his marked intellectual proclivities, he seems 
 first to have found a position in a commercial house. 
 An old friend, Mr. J. E. Hamilton, said l he had often 
 heard Benjamin declare that the familiarity he then 
 acquired with commercial forms and procedure, and 
 bookkeeping, stood him in good stead in after years. 
 Nothing, however, but a memory of this mercantile 
 
 l LawleyMS. 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 33 
 
 episode remains. One cannot even say with what firm 
 or in what business he was employed ; and it could not 
 have been for long, since we soon find him at what 
 must have been a more congenial occupation, as clerk 
 to a notary. From the first Benjamin had made use 
 of every spare moment to prepare himself better for 
 the battle with the world. After business hours he 
 studied law ; and he was acute enough to recognize at 
 once, not only that New Orleans offered him unusual 
 facilities for acquiring French and Spanish, but that a 
 thorough familiarity with French, particularly, would 
 profit him immensely in any career, mercantile or pro 
 fessional. Accordingly, he sought private pupils who 
 wanted coaching in any of the branches he felt pre 
 pared to teach and his education, even so unhappily 
 truncated as it had been, was certainly far above the 
 average. From som6 pupils he received fees ; with 
 others an exchange was affected, he teaching English 
 and learning French. 
 
 The notary with whom Benjamin served, and under 
 whose friendly care he studied law more regularly than 
 he could possibly have done by himself, was Mr. 
 Greenbury E. Stringer. The friendless and all but 
 penniless young Jew seems to have been very fortunate 
 in finding his way into this gentleman's service ; for 
 Mr. Stringer had a large amount of notarial business, 
 and therefore many clients who might subsequently 
 remember the young man studying law in his office ; 
 and he was moreover highly respected as a man, 
 and a good friend to his clerk and pupil. One day 
 a gentleman from the country, a sugar-planter of 
 means and high social position, wrote to Mr. Stringer 
 to ask whether he could recommend any likely young 
 
34 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 man for a tutor. Mr. Stringer replied that he 
 thought he could name a suitable person j would 
 the gentleman call at his office on his next visit 
 to the city? The gentleman came, was introduced 
 to Benjamin, and had an interview with him. "I'm 
 sorry," he told Mr. Stringer afterward, " but your 
 young man won't do." " What's the matter? Can't 
 he teach the subjects you want?" " Oh, yes, and 
 more besides ; the fact is, he' s perfectly wonderful. But 
 he's so fascinating that I'm sure my girl would fall in 
 love with him and run away before the month was out. ' ' l 
 
 The story itself is very likely apocryphal ; but it 
 shows the impression the young man made on those 
 around him. Moreover, while teaching English to 
 Mile. Natalie St. Martin, Benjamin not only learned 
 French of the best sort and in the most thorough fash 
 ion, but fell in love himself. The young lady was 
 strikingly beautiful, and witty : she had, besides, great 
 musical talent and u the voice of a prima donna." 
 Benjamin was called to the bar on December 16, 1832, 
 and within a few months later he was married. 
 
 The marriage contract, fixing the property relations 
 between the future spouses, was passed before Louis 
 Peraud, Notary Public, February 12, 1833, signed by 
 Jndah Philip Benjamin and Natalie St. Martin, daugh 
 ter of Auguste St. Martin and Frangoise Peire. The 
 witnesses were Greenbury E. Stringer and Charles 
 Maurian on the part of the husband, and Samuel Her 
 man and Alonzo Morphy, atone time a justice of the 
 Louisiana Supreme Court, on the part of the bride. 
 The exact date of the marriage ceremony is not 
 
 1 Anecdote from the late Dr. Davidson, of New Orleans, in a 
 clipping from the N. 0. Democrat, 1880, which I cannot date. 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 35 
 
 known ; but it is customary to pass the notarial act on 
 the day of the wedding, or not long before. Mrs. 
 Benjamin, just previous to her death, wrote that she 
 had been married on February 16, 1832 ; the year is 
 manifestly a mistake of failing memory ; but she would 
 have been less likely to make a mistake as to the day 
 of the month, which accords well enough with the date 
 of the notarial act. 1 
 
 The bride was a Creole, i. e., of French parentage, 
 but born in a colony, her parents being refugees from 
 the black horror of St. Domingo. Though socially at 
 tractive, she was not a fit companion intellectually for 
 her husband, caring far more for brilliant society than 
 for domesticity. And she was a devout Catholic. Mr. 
 Benjamin had been brought up a Jew, and was too 
 proud of his hereditary religion, however slight the 
 hold of its forms and practices upon him in after life, 
 ever to accept the Eonian Catholic or any other creed. 
 Marriages between persons of different faiths are rarely 
 wise ; and when neither party is sufficiently indifferent 
 to compromise, they can hardly help proving ill- 
 assorted and unhappy. If there ever was a man who 
 loved the home, and knew how, even when preoccu 
 pied with affairs in the great world, to give himself up 
 to the little loving services that count so much in the 
 daily lives of the family, that man was Judah P. Ben 
 jamin. He did not care for wealth for- himself; he 
 wished to make ample provision for the comfort of all 
 those dependent on him ; he wanted a home. But Mrs. 
 Benjamin did not share his simple tastes ; and though 
 he hid his unhappiness most scrupulously from the 
 world, from his most intimate friends, and even from 
 
 1 Letter from Mr. Kruttschuitt, Lawley MS. 
 
36 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 his own family as far as he could, his married life could 
 not have been other than a disappointment to him. 
 
 Since Mrs. Benjamin really entered so slightly into 
 his career, we may as well anticipate events just enough 
 to complete the little that need be said of her life in 
 America. Mr. Benjamin was soon in a position to 
 supply her liberally with means, and she entertained 
 her friends, he sharing in it all as far as his occupa 
 tions would permit. Their home was at first in the 
 city, on Bourbon Street ; but after he secured an in 
 terest in " Bellechasse " plantation, Mrs. Benjamin 
 tried life there, and found it " triste." There was but 
 one child who lived beyond infancy, Anne Julie Marie 
 Natalie Benjamin, and when the little girl was between 
 four and five years old her mother moved permanently 
 to Prance to educate her, and Mr. Benjamin saw them 
 only on his summer trips, almost annual, to Paris. 
 
 When Judah P. Benjamin was married, in 1833, 
 he had his own living to make ; he was already con 
 tributing something to the support of his mother and 
 sisters, and was soon to have to provide for their entire 
 maintenance. In a young and vigorously growing 
 American city like the New Orleans of that day, for 
 tunes were more readily and rapidly accumulated than 
 now ; still, Mr. Benjamin's rise was marvelous, or 
 what the newspapers sometimes call " meteoric." His 
 service in the notary's office had been good train 
 ing ; it had taught him much of legal forms and legal 
 procedure which others had to acquire in the course of 
 their profession ; it had made him a ready penman, 
 and developed that exquisitely neat and accurate chi- 
 rography which distinguished him always ; it had 
 probably brought him into personal contact with a 
 
LAW AND SUGAB 37 
 
 large number of clients who wonld now come to the 
 young lawyer. But unquestionably the most potent 
 factors in his success were his native ability, his pleas 
 ing personality, his tremendous energy, and his capac 
 ity for hard work. 
 
 It has been stated repeatedly that Benjamin began 
 his practice in partnership with Thomas Slidell, or 
 with C. M. Conrad, or with both of them in the firm of 
 Slidell, Benjamin, and Conrad. He was early associ 
 ated with the former in the preparation of a " Digest 
 of the Eeported Decisions of the Superior Courts in the 
 Territory of Orleans and State of Louisiana' 7 (1834), 
 which brought him considerable reputation ; and he 
 was also intimate with Mr. Conrad ; but I have been 
 unable to find any authority for the statement that he 
 was then in partnership with either of them. It would 
 have been more like him to be self-reliant and start in 
 his profession by himself. Furthermore, such is the re 
 port given me by a member of the family ; and the 
 early directories of New Orleans confirm this by assign 
 ing Benjamin, Slidell, and Conrad to separate offices. 
 
 Clients come but slowly at first to every young law 
 yer ; therefore during the first year of his practice 
 Benjamin had leisure to prepare the "Digest" men 
 tioned above. It had been originally intended only 
 for his own use, brief annotations accompanying the 
 resume of facts and analysis of the court's ruling in 
 notable cases. But, encouraged and assisted by Mr. 
 Slidell, he added to the scope of the notes, and in 
 cluded more cases, until fellow lawyers right and left 
 found it very convenient to borrow the manuscript, 
 whose real value thus became apparent. Then the 
 two friends revised it, and published it in book form. 
 
38 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 While of course not ranking as a creative work or a 
 standard treatise discussing fundamental principles 
 for it really required little more than care and accu 
 racy in compilation, with the ability to write an intel 
 ligent synopsis the " Digest" was recognized as a 
 very useful work to the Louisiana lawyer, and had suf 
 ficient sale to warrant another printing within a few 
 years. This revised edition, in fact, continued to hold 
 the field for many years. 
 
 Very soon after he began his practice, however, 
 Benjamin had cases before the Supreme Court of Lou 
 isiana ; l and but a glance at the court reports subsequent 
 to 1834 is necessary to show the constantly increasing 
 frequency with which his name appears. Many of 
 these early cases, doubtless such desperate ones as 
 generally come to young practitioners eager to under 
 take anything, are lost, and in not one does the sum 
 involved or the issue decided appear to have been im 
 portant. Yet the volume of legal business indicated 
 by these recorded cases is noteworthy. Before his ap 
 prenticeship at the bar is ended, Benjamin's name be 
 comes at least as frequent in the reports, if not in con 
 nection with the larger causes, as those of able attor 
 neys who had several years' start of him. Among 
 these men, some of more than local renown, some much 
 older and some younger than Benjamin, were the 
 Slidells, John, afterward Senator, and Thomas, after 
 ward Chief Justice of Louisiana ; Pierre Soule, foreign 
 born (like Benjamin), a famous orator, and one day 
 to be Minister to Spain, when he will sign that famous 
 Ostend Manifesto that startles the Union in 1854 ; 
 
 1 Louisiana Reports, VI, 100., Baron vs. Duncan, Executor, et. al.; 
 and 182, Spurrier vs. Sheldon et. al, 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 39 
 
 Christian Eoselius, also a foreigner, risen from the 
 hardest poverty to be a lawyer whose opinion is highly 
 prized, a man whose sturdy honesty all respect ; F. B. 
 and C. M. Conrad, both prominent in the politics of 
 the South j Mazureau, the greatest of the Creole law 
 yers ; John E. Grymes, some time, like John Slidell, 
 to be a serious political rival of Benjamin ; and a host 
 of others Levi Peirce, L. C. Duncan, E. Seghers 
 whose names are now less familiar because they pre 
 ferred law to politics. It was a very able bar, and a 
 very large one for a town of less than fifty thousand in 
 habitants. But the volume of commercial business 
 then flowing through New Orleans was out of all pro 
 portion to the population. Benjamin had chosen 
 wisely in coming here to begin his life-work, for the 
 town had already grown and for thirty years was to 
 continue growing with that marvelous rapidity which 
 has become so common, under improved conditions of 
 communication, that it ceases to be a marvel. Given 
 a favorable situation, such as that of New Orleans at 
 the mouth of a great river, and steam applied to trans 
 portation would work wonders. Already to New 
 Orleans the Mississippi boats brought a vast business, 
 soon to be added to when steamships replaced the sail 
 ing vessels and railways supplemented the steamboats. 
 It was a thriving commercial city, where fortunes were 
 quickly made. And where commerce thrives the law 
 yer does also. 
 
 This partly explains, no doubt, Benjamin's rapid 
 success. There were many men at the bar of far less 
 brilliance than he who nevertheless made handsome 
 fortunes ; for any attorney of fair talent could not fail 
 to find plenty to do. It was in the field of commercial 
 
40 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 law that Benjamin labored. He certainly had more 
 than average ability ; and he worked, said a contem 
 porary, "as few men have, before or since. 77 Pains 
 taking and accurate to the smallest detail in getting up 
 his cases, he had then as always an immense capacity 
 for work, and he labored with such intensity and con 
 centration that he completed his task with what 
 seemed incredible celerity. Scarcely one of those who 
 have told of his achievements at the bar has failed to 
 note his powers of logical analysis ; with the most 
 complex matters of fact or of law before him, his mind 
 at once singled out the essential, the vital point at 
 issue ; and seeing this clearly himself he could present 
 his view disencumbered of confusing details. But this 
 quickness of apprehension, and power of logical pre 
 sentation, which might have been a temptation to care 
 lessness and superficiality was, as we have said, guarded 
 by the most thorough mastery of detail. The per 
 fect balance of Benjamin's temperament, his complete 
 self-command and easy good-humor under the most 
 trying conditions, and the deceptive air of being 
 always unpreoccupied and free to devote his time to 
 things other than business, gave many the impression 
 that his learning was easily acquired. On the con 
 trary, his legal knowledge was the fruit of hard labor ; 
 whatever of genius there may have been, there was 
 also plenty of steady work. 
 
 To the lay reader any extended treatment of the 
 suits in which Benjamin appeared would prove tedious. 
 Most of these suits, moreover, deal with commercial 
 law, and hence do not in any way bring up issues of 
 general public interest. But in 1842 Benjamin, at that 
 time with Slidell and Conrad, had a case, or rather a 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 41 
 
 series of cases, that attracted wide attention, involving 
 as they did international complications that might 
 have led to a serious clash with England. The brig 
 Creole, engaged in the coasting slave-trade, shipped 
 a lot of negroes at Richmond, Norfolk, and other points 
 in Virginia, for New Orleans. While on the high seas, 
 nineteen of the slaves mutinied, killed the agent of 
 one of their owners, seriously wounded the captain, 
 and obtained complete control of the vessel. They 
 then forced the crew to change the course and make 
 for Nassau. On arrival there the mate jumped into 
 the quarantine boat, was taken ashore, and appealed 
 to the American consul for protection for the ship. 
 The British officials guarded the Creole, and kept the 
 slaves from landing or holding communication with 
 other boats. In due time the Attorney -General for 
 the island, accompanied by magistrates, boarded the 
 vessel and took depositions on the mutiny, establish 
 ing the guilt of the nineteen leaders, whom they pro 
 posed to hold for the murder of the agent and assault 
 upon the captain and crew. Thus far both parties 
 are in agreement ; of the subsequent happenings there 
 are two versions, that of the American crew and 
 passengers, and that of the British officials. The 
 former alleged that the Attorney-General and the mag 
 istrates, after establishing the guilt of the actual 
 mutineers, announced to the rest of the negroes that 
 they were free to go ashore, and that, being once on 
 British soil, they would no longer be slaves. This was 
 directly contradicted by the British, who testified that 
 this announcement was made by a passenger, and that 
 the responsible officers of the vessel, standing by, 
 made no protest, and no effort to hinder their landing. 
 
42 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 The Commercial Court of New Orleans first con 
 sidered the suits brought by the owners of the liber 
 ated slaves to recover from the insurance companies. 
 There were a number of separate suits, e. g., McCargo 
 vs. The New Orleans Insurance Company, and Lockett 
 vs. Merchants' Insurance Company, 1 in which F. B. 
 Conrad, T. Slidell, and J. P. Benjamin represented the 
 insurance companies. The case of McCargo vs. The 
 New Orleans Insurance Company will serve for what 
 brief comment we can make. The suit was lost in the 
 lower court, judgment for $18,400 being given against 
 the underwriters. The brief on appeal to the State 
 Supreme Court was prepared by Benjamin, and was 
 an exhaustive consideration of the wider aspects of the 
 case 5 the judgment of the lower court was reversed. 
 Benjamin's argument is most elaborate and lucid, 
 clearly establishing that the liberation of the slaves 
 was not due to " foreign interference" (covered by the 
 policy), but to u the force and effect of the law of 
 nature and of nations on the relations of the parties, 
 against which no insurance was or could be legally 
 made." This is the eighth and final point in the argu 
 ment to prove that the insurance company was not 
 liable, the others being based on more technical 
 grounds and supported by copious legal references. 
 And this point is the more interesting to us because 
 its proof involves an examination of the status of 
 slavery in the law of nations. Mr. Benjamin, him 
 self a slave-owner, and afterward in the Senate one of 
 the most able defenders of the institution, here quotes 
 the very passage of the Eoman law about which he was 
 later to have a debate with Seward : " Slavery is 
 
 1 10 Robinson's Louisiana Reports, 202 and 339, 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 43 
 
 against the law of nature ; and although sanctioned 
 by the law of nations, it is so sanctioned as a local or 
 municipal institution, of binding force within the 
 limits of the nation that chooses to establish it, and on 
 the vessels of such nation on the high seas, but as hav 
 ing no force or binding effect beyond the jurisdiction 
 of such nation. 7 ' 1 
 
 The " Creole case" involved issues that made it not 
 only a cause celebre but a matter for diplomatic negotia 
 tions. With these we are not concerned ; but this suit 
 was probably the first which spread Benjamin's name 
 over the Union. His brief was printed in pamphlet 
 form and widely circulated ; and it seems rather pro 
 phetic, when we look at it from our vantage ground of 
 sixty years, that his name should thus first have be 
 come widely known in connection with slavery. 
 
 But Benjamin's reputation as an attorney depended 
 not on "Creole cases." Already, in 1842, he very 
 likely had a practice as lucrative as that of any lawyer 
 in New Orleans. Fees regarded as enormous in those 
 days were given to retain him, or to secure his opinion. 
 Unfortunately, the details of all this business can only 
 be guessed at ; but we have an index to his reputation in 
 an interesting little volume that was issued in New Or 
 leans in 1846 : Sketches of Life and Character in 
 Louisiana. The sketches, originally appearing in the 
 New Orleans newspapers 8 were anonymous, but are 
 known to have been by Judge Whitaker, afterward 
 a quite distinguished member of the bar whose famous 
 members he described. What he says of Mr. Ben 
 jamin is for the most part so apt and so useful, as 
 
 1 10 Robinson's Louisiana Reports, p. 279. 
 2 The Bee and The Jeffersonian. 
 
44 JUDAH P. BESTJAMIH 
 
 giving a contemporary view, that I shall quote lib 
 erally : 
 
 " Benjamin is emphatically the Commercial Lawyer of 
 our city, and one of the most successful advocates at 
 our bar. . . . He is remarkable for the vivacity of 
 his features, his sparkling and intelligent eyes, the 
 perfect neatness and elegance of his costume, and the 
 finished courtesy of his manners. He is rather below 
 the middle height, though well proportioned. From 
 his appearance, he would scarcely be taken for a 
 student, though perhaps as industrious a man as there 
 is in the city, and to be found at his office early and 
 late, never neglecting business for social enjoyments, 
 or the calls of pleasure. Mr. Benjamin is a man fitted 
 to adorn any circle, however distinguished for elegance 
 or refinement, and yet at the same time, we find him 
 the severe and untiring devotee to his profession. 
 
 ' l As a speaker, he is calm, collected, forcible, though 
 sometimes a little too rapid in his elocution. His voice 
 has a silvery, mellifluous sweetness, and seldom jars 
 upon the ear by degenerating into shrill or harsh tones. 
 His style is distinguished for its conciseness and close 
 adherence to the matter in hand. He never goes in 
 search of flowers or metaphors, and yet, when occasion 
 oifers, uses them with skill and appositeness. His 
 manner and gesture are graceful and finished ; and his 
 language the purest and most appropriate English. 
 To his many scholarly acquirements he adds the French 
 language, which he speaks with fluency and elegance. 
 In his converse with the world he is sociable and 
 agreeable, and, I believe, generally admired and liked 
 by those who know him intimately. 
 
 11 Mr. Benjamin is by birth, and as his name imports, 
 an Israelite. Yet how far he still adheres to the re 
 ligion of his fathers, I cannot tell, though I should 
 doubt whether the matter troubled him much. In his 
 politics, he is a Whig, and one of the lights of the 
 party in this city. He is, too, if I mistake not, some- 
 
LAW AND SUGAB 45 
 
 thing of a writer, and has contributed his quota to the 
 literature of the South. . . . It is very evident 
 that Mr. Benjamin seeks rather the distinction of being 
 a thorough and accomplished lawyer, than that of a 
 literary man or politician. In business he is ever 
 ready, never for a moment at a loss. This readiness, 
 this activity of mind, are the fruits of labor and of 
 study ; he has not been a close student for nothing. 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin cannot be more, certainly, than 
 thirty-six, and yet deserves a niche among the veterans 
 of our bar. I dwell long upon this picture, as I think 
 it may be studied with advantage by young practition 
 ers who seek distinction." 
 
 Accompanying the sketch of Benjamin is one of Ban- 
 dell Hunt ; and the writer's contrast of the two is in 
 some points instructive : 
 
 " Composure, coolness, and perfect self-possession 
 characterize the manner of Benjamin, while Hunt, in 
 his fondness for display, is more excited, more passion- 
 ate, more energetic. With Benjamin every word has 
 a meaning, every expression is germane to the matter. 
 . . . The peculiar department of law to which the 
 younger counselor has directed his attention has prob 
 ably conduced to the severity of his style, and the plain, 
 businesslike features by which it is characterized. 
 . . . Mr. Benjamin in his peculiar walk, is the 
 best lawyer of the two, and the more attached to his 
 profession for the love of it. Mr. Hunt aims, we should 
 think, greatly more at political distinction, though we 
 should not be in the least surprised if the younger 
 counselor got the start of him." 
 
 There are several significant points in this little bit 
 of gossipy character-drawing that tempt one to pause 
 for comment. In the first place, the closing remark 
 
46 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 was an apt prophecy ; for Hunt was soon to be quite 
 distanced in public life by his competitor. Besides 
 this, one cannot help noting the reference to Benjamin's 
 religion. In the absence of direct evidence it is im 
 possible to speak with decision, but it may be doubted 
 if he had in any way kept up his connection with the 
 Jewish church since his arrival in New Orleans. He 
 had undoubtedly been reared to a very strict observance 
 of his faith ; and the fact that he was known as a Jew 
 at Yale, and that he possessed there a copy of the 
 Hebrew Psalter, would indicate that up to that time he 
 had remained a professing Jew. But soon after his 
 coming to New Orleans, an intensely Catholic com 
 munity, we find him intimately associated with 
 Catholics, rather than with those of his own race. 
 His marriage to a devout Catholic, too, would in itself 
 indicate apathy, at least, toward his faith. And we 
 have direct evidence to show how very lax were the 
 few Jews in New Orleans at the time. Even if he had 
 been temperamentally religious, and he certainly was 
 not or inclined to -elect his associates from among 
 the Jews, the atmosphere of the city would have been 
 most unfavorable. A writer in the Allgemeine Zeitung 
 des Judenthums 1 reports that, though there were 
 about seven hundred Jewish families in New Orleans, 
 only four kept a Kosher table, and only two observed 
 Saturday as Sabbath. The synagogue accommodated 
 only about fifty persons, and t i the former Eabbi, a 
 Dutchman, had married a Catholic wife, who was re 
 strained with difficulty from sending a crucifix to his 
 grave with her husband on his death." 2 
 
 1 1842, Vol. VI, p. 294. 
 
 8 Quotation and references from Kohler, p. 68. 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 47 
 
 In such an atmosphere, the faith of his fathers was 
 not apt to retain its hold upon the successful lawyer 
 and aspiring politician, of whom a newspaper could 
 say, in the height of that first "native American " 
 hysteria with which he was inclined to sympathize, 
 "Of Mr. Benjamin's religious views we know noth 
 ing." ' He did not forswear Judaism or conceal his 
 Jewish origin j he remained always (so testifies an old 
 friend who held many arguments on the subject with 
 him in later years) a firm believer in immortality and 
 in a personal Divinity ; he was not ashamed, rather 
 justly proud, of his lineage, and in temperament al 
 ways retained much of the best of the traits of his 
 people ; but he had ceased to hold any active com 
 munion with Judaism. 
 
 These habits of indifference must have become firmly 
 fixed within the first ten or fifteen years of his resi 
 dence in New Orleans ; for long before that time had 
 passed he was in circumstances sufficiently prosperous 
 actively to renew his association with his family in 
 South Carolina. Almost yearly, in the dull summer sea 
 son, he used to visit his mother and sisters, taking with 
 him supplies of such things as would add to their com 
 fort or conduce to their pleasure. Always there was a 
 trunk full of the latest books ; and during his stay it 
 was his delight to read the thrilling novels to them, to 
 tease them by breaking off short whenever one of 
 Mr. G. P. E. James's lone horsemen or distressed 
 maidens was found in a predicament more than usually 
 unhappy. Into all their pleasures he entered with 
 the hearty zest of a boy on his holidays, and it was a 
 holiday for him. He was by this time practically 
 
 1 New Orleans Courier, Nov. 23, 1844. 
 
48 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 their sole support, and was maturing plans to bring 
 them nearer him, where he could more constantly 
 see to their well-being. 
 
 The large profits of his practice before the bar were 
 not squandered, though generously expended. In the 
 early forties, he acquired an interest in a large sugar 
 plantation, " Bellechasse," in the Parish of Plaque- 
 mines, below New Orleans, and on a visit to his 
 mother in 1846, he was able to announce to her that 
 they should soon have a home of their own in Louisiana. 
 But about this time he was to suffer a reverse that for 
 awhile plunged him into despondency, and ultimately 
 led to his temporary retirement from the bar. 
 
 The severity of the strain to which he had subjected 
 his health, and particularly his eyesight, had not been 
 realized in the buoyancy of success. Now his eyes 
 suddenly gave out, so that for some months he was 
 utterly incapacitated for the pursuit of his profession, 
 and as thoroughly depressed as energetic and ambi 
 tious temperaments are by what seems an entirely use 
 less and incomprehensible check upon progress. One 
 of his contemporaries used to recall this as a period 
 when even Mr. Benjamin was despondent and moody. 1 
 It is small wonder that he was so, for the blow came 
 at a time when he was just beginning to feel himself 
 secure in the anticipation of unselfish pleasures for 
 which he had labored devotedly. But the period of de 
 pression did not endure long. He resolved to re 
 linquish his practice, and give himself more assidu 
 ously to the fascinating occupation of cultivating 
 sugar-cane. 
 
 At the time when Mr. Benjamin became interested 
 
 1 The late Mr. Henry J. Leovy. 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 49 
 
 in sugar-making, that great Louisiana industry was 
 yet in its infancy. Many of the plantations in what 
 is now the great sugar and rice district of the state 
 were still devoted to the growing of cotton, though the 
 soil was by no means well adapted to that plant. 
 Much of the land now under cultivation was yet un 
 cleared of the dense growth of timber, the forest 
 primeval of majestic live-oak and impenetrable cane- 
 brakes ; much was believed to be incapable of cultiva 
 tion because of bad drainage, being swamp-land sub 
 ject to overflow from the great river and from every 
 freshet in the numerous bayous and chains of lakes 
 that honeycomb southern Louisiana. Furthermore, 
 where sugar was cultivated, the methods were ex 
 tremely crude. The absolute essentiality of good 
 drainage was understood, but the drainage systems 
 were very imperfect, laid out in rough-and-ready 
 fashion that too often accomplished the minimum of 
 good at the maximum of cost. Few planters realized 
 the necessity of fertilizing a soil apparently so rich, 
 but soon exhausted by the cane ; few even understood 
 the advantage of rotation of crops, but used one field 
 till it was exhausted and then cleared a fresh tract of 
 timber. The possibility of improving the plant by 
 careful selection of the seed, and by importation of 
 new varieties, was but little appreciated. And when 
 the crop was grown, the cane was ground in little, 
 primitive mills that could extract but a small propor 
 tion of its saccharine juice, which, scarcely freed 
 from even its grosser impurities, was then boiled in 
 large "open kettles" to the point of granulating; 
 then laboriously ladled out into shallow wooden boxes 
 called "coolers," where the wet sugar, brown with 
 
50 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 impurities, would settle to the bottom, leaving a large 
 proportion of delicious but uncrystallizable "cooler 
 molasses ' ' on top. There was no science in the process, 
 and consequently much waste. For in the excessive 
 production of molasses alone the planter lost a great 
 proportion of the most valuable product of his cane, 
 sugar being worth many times what molasses was. 
 
 Those of us who can remember the delights of the 
 old "open kettle " process, with its delicious by 
 products of sirop de batterie, cuite, and cooler molasses, 
 may have a lingering regret that improved methods 
 have brought more sugar out of the cane juice, and 
 infinitely more money into the pockets of the planters, 
 at the expense of all these good things. Mr. Benjamin 
 became interested in the subject just when some half- 
 dozen progressive planters were beginning to attempt 
 improvements in the manufacture of sugar. He was 
 by no means a pioneer, though he was among the 
 earliest successful experimenters. Unquestionably, 
 however, his intelligence, added to his superior ad 
 vantages through foreign travel, knowledge of foreign 
 languages, and naturally scientific habit of mind, gave 
 him a preeminence in a business in which men who 
 had been at it all their lives regarded him somewhat 
 enviously and contemptuously as an unpractical theorist 
 and tyro. These points merit some emphasis at our 
 hands because there was a good deal of jealousy and 
 ill-feeling at the time, and because various biographical 
 notices of Mr. Benjamin have set up unwarranted 
 claims for him. His just due is quite enough, without 
 making extravagant assertions, as if he were the fa 
 ther of sugar chemistry and the pioneer in the new 
 process of boiling sugar in vacuum. 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 51 
 
 The explanation of the fact that Mr. Benjamin has 
 been given credit for things which he never dreamed 
 of claiming as his own, lies in this : He was a clear 
 and fluent writer, and was the first, in Louisiana, to 
 print really accurate, lucid, and scientific descriptions 
 of the improved methods used by others as well as 
 by himself. Plunging into the theoretic side of the 
 question with his usual enthusiasm, throughout his 
 life it was noted that, even for a lawsuit, he would 
 subject himself to any amount of labor in order to learn 
 all about any practical or theoretical points involved, 
 from sailing a ship to building a railway he quickly 
 mastered the essentials of the discoveries then being 
 made by the French chemists, saw their practical ap 
 plication, and proceeded to advocate the new methods 
 in a series of papers published in the once famous 
 De Bow's Review. 
 
 These articles, though necessarily filled with tech 
 nical details, are wonderfully readable, and could still 
 be perused with profit, despite the continuous improve 
 ment in the making of sugar. For the great majority 
 of their readers (and the periodical had a wide circu 
 lation), they first elevated the whole process, from the 
 cane-field to the finished white sugar, into a science 
 where nothing was to be left to luck or done without 
 forethought of its effect ; where every item of expense 
 and of profit was calculated ; where chemical princi 
 ples that ignorance had despised as of no practical use 
 v^ere shown to have the most direct practical bearing 
 in dollars and cents. Even now there are many, 
 especially of those engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
 who, to their cost, despise pure science. To these peo 
 ple it would seem a barren fact, that a liquid in 
 
52 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 vacuum will boil at a temperature much lower than 
 that necessary in the open air. But with such a dem 
 onstration as Benjamin was able to give, that the 
 application of this principle and others of like appar 
 ent remoteness from common sense and the teachings 
 of their fathers meant an immense increase in the 
 money returns from sugar, prejudice was constrained 
 to yield at last. For his efforts at popularizing useful 
 scientific knowledge Mr. Benjamin would deserve to 
 be remembered in the agricultural history of the coun 
 try, even had he done nothing else. 
 
 In the first article, "Louisiana Sugar, 7 ' 1 he gives 
 general comment and useful practical suggestions on 
 drainage, planting the cane, fertilization, cultivation, 
 and improvement of the seed-cane. But the major 
 part of the paper is devoted to a popular presentation 
 of the improved process of manufacture, with tables 
 of figures to show the practical results on his own 
 plantation and on others where experiments had been 
 made. He gives a chemical analysis of the sugar-cane, 
 inaccurate in the view of more recent research but suf 
 ficient for the purpose, and explains the structure of 
 the plant, as well as the old wasteful methods of ex 
 tracting and boiling the juice. He then describes the 
 improved methods. There were two rival processes at 
 that time, each with its advocates. Both applied the 
 principle of boiling the cane-juice in vacuum, whereby 
 a much greater proportion of sugar was produced in 
 place of the molasses. They differed chiefly in certain 
 technical points of arrangement, which cannot be ex 
 plained without the use of technical terms. In the 
 
 1 De Bow's Review, Vol. II, pp. 322-345, November, 1846. 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 63 
 
 apparatus of M. Eillieux, which Benjamin had in 
 stalled at "Bellechasse," the juice was boiled in a 
 series of " vacuum pans," always kept from contact 
 with the air till it reached the point of granulation in 
 the fourth and last pan, and the evaporated steam 
 from one pan was used to assist in boiling the syrup in 
 the next. In that of De'rosne and Cail a part of the 
 process took place in the open air, the syrup being 
 allowed to flow over a series of pipes heated by steam, 
 a portion of the apparatus known as a " double effect," 
 modifications of which have been used since. The 
 champion of the Derosne and Cail apparatus was 
 M. Valcour Aime. In both systems scientific principles 
 were applied to the problems of extracting a maximum 
 of juice from the cane, filtering and defecating the 
 juice to remove impurities, and economizing fuel by 
 making use of steam in place of a direct flame to boil 
 it. Mr. Benjamin's argument in favor of the supe 
 riority of the apparatus employed on his own planta 
 tion is sound in theory, and supported by a good array 
 of facts. It may be well to mention here that subse 
 quent improvements in the art have also rather justi 
 fied his view, though both of the rival systems have 
 contributed to the apparatus now used in modern 
 sugar refineries. It is perhaps needless to remark 
 that, while mechanical improvements have been made, 
 as in the successful construction of mills with far 
 heavier rollers to crush the cane, the greatest ad 
 vances since have been merely developments on the 
 scientific side, such as more accurate chemical analysis 
 of sugar and cane, the application of the principles of 
 polarization, and the use of the centrifugal for drying 
 the sugar instead of the primitive method of allowing 
 
54 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the molasses to drip from the wet sugar placed in bar 
 rels over a cistern. 
 
 In a second paper/ an address on "Agriculture" 
 intended to be delivered before the meeting of the 
 Agricultural and Mechanics' Institute of Louisiana, 
 Mr. Benjamin discusses several phases of possible 
 improvement in agricultural methods. He tells of 
 some new things seen on his last visit to France, 
 among others a dream still to be realized a steam 
 plow which he saw tried in that country. But he 
 recurs to sugar chemistry, recording the recent ad 
 vances made in France. He describes, also, an appa 
 ratus since successfully introduced, a " slicer " for 
 cutting and slicing the hard bark of the cane before it 
 goes to the mill, with the experiments in soaking the 
 crushed cane with lime-water and recrushing it, all of 
 which would, it was believed, increase the percent 
 age of juice extracted, a theory since fully proven. 
 And with pardonable pride he quotes from the recent 
 report of Professor E. S. McCulloch, a chemist sent 
 out by the Federal government to study sugar -culture 
 in Louisiana and Cuba, describing the efforts of 
 Messrs. Benjamin and Packwood to make chemically 
 pure sugar direct from the cane-juice, without the slow 
 process of the " cooler" and subsequent refining. It 
 would be tedious to give an account of the experi 
 mental methods, using a tank with a perforated bot 
 tom called a "tiger," by which Benjamin and Pack- 
 wood were enabled to give McCulloch a specimen of 
 sugar found to be chemically pure: "Its crystal 
 line grain and snowy whiteness are also equal to 
 those of the best double refined sugar of our northern 
 
 1 January, 1848, Vol. V, pp. 44-57. 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 55 
 
 refineries. To these two enterprising men must, 
 therefore, be awarded the merit of having first made 
 directly from a vegetable juice, sugar of absolute chem 
 ical purity." Mr. Benjamin gives the credit for the 
 success of this experiment to his partner, Mr. Pack- 
 wood, under whose careful supervision all of the prac 
 tical work was done. 
 
 As early as 1846 the State Agricultural Society had 
 awarded the first prize for loaf sugar to Benjamin and 
 Packwood. But, as Mr. Benjamin himself confesses in 
 the article just reviewed, the attempt to make pure 
 sugar in the " tigers" was only an experimental suc 
 cess, interesting but not really practical on a large 
 scale. The claim made on the basis of McCulloch's re 
 port, however, led to some ill-feeling at the time, 
 whereby Mr. Benjamin did not escape caustic censure, 
 in spite of his express statement that all credit for 
 the experiments at "Bellechasse" was due to Mr. 
 Packwood. I refer the curious in such matters to 
 Valcour Aime's article in De Bow's Review. 1 We are 
 not writing the history of sugar in Louisiana, and our 
 interest in the controversy ends here. 
 
 The last of the De Bow articles 2 introduces us to an 
 instrument whose use led to the greatest improvement 
 in the art of sugar-refining. It is a description of 
 " SoleiPs Saccharometer," the earliest usable in 
 strument applying the polarization of light to deter 
 mine the percentage of sugar in a given amount of 
 j nice. Only the practical sugar-maker could appreciate 
 what a revolution the "polarizer" has effected, and so 
 I shall not attempt to show its application. Mr. 
 
 1 Vol. V, pp. 249, 289. 
 
 2 Vol. V., pp. 357-364, April, 1848. 
 
56 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Benjamin gives a detailed description of the instrument, 
 explains the optical and chemical principles involved, 
 and the method of its use in the sugar-house, with the 
 consequent gain to the intelligent planter. 
 
 It is not very surprising that a trained student and 
 scholar of broad culture and keen intellect should have 
 taken such an interest and achieved such results in the 
 more theoretical departments of farming. But Mr. 
 Benjamin was not the typical gentleman farmer, proud 
 of his cabbages at one dollar a head. Until misfor 
 tunes beyond human foresight to avert came upon 
 " Bellechasse," it was a successful plantation, though 
 perhaps no small share of the credit for this should 
 go to Theodore Packwood, who was a practical man, 
 and who took charge of the actual work. That 
 Mr. Benjamin's theories were not altogether vi 
 sionary, one is at least led to surmise, since the 
 machinery installed by him at " Bellechasse" was still 
 serviceable and in use as late as 1895 ; not till then 
 was it deemed necessary to remodel the sugar-house 
 which he had constructed half a century before. 
 But there is certainly ground for the belief that, with 
 out the practical knowledge and the restraining con 
 servatism of his partner, he would have been tempted 
 into fruitless and costly experiments j for he was by na 
 ture not only fond of new things, experimental toys 
 but also prone to be too sanguine, fascinated by vaguely 
 magnificent schemes where his fervid imagination could 
 revel, in consideration of the immense results, without 
 being hampered by the cold facts that must be faced 
 ere those results could be made realities. One of the 
 household at " Bellechasse " recalls that Mrs. Pack- 
 wood used to say, despairingly: "There goes 
 
LAW AND SUGAE 57 
 
 Theodore with Mr. Benjamin ! I never see them rid 
 ing about the field together without trembling for the 
 consequences. Mr. Benjamin can talk him into buy 
 ing any new-fangled pot or pan he's pleased with for 
 the moment, and then Theodore has the worry of try 
 ing to make the thing work." And the same witness 
 remembers several expensive and useless toys of 
 the kind Mrs. Packwood complains of, among other 
 things a domestic ice machine, which produced, or was 
 supposed to produce, ice in long candles when you 
 turned the crank. In spite of this fondness for experi 
 ment, however, and whether the ice machine worked 
 or not, " Bellechasse " was a financial success. 
 
 Early in 1847 Mr. Benjamin wrote to his mother 
 that she, his widowed sister, Mrs. Levy, and the lat 
 ter' s young daughter, should come to take possession of 
 the plantation home he had prepared for them ; his 
 wife had found it too lonely. To the youngest member 
 of the trio it was all a delightful surprise, a romance 
 whose charms she longed to taste. l They made the 
 long trip from Beaufort by sea, and arrived safely in 
 New Orleans one bright spring morning. The next 
 day they took the steamboat down to "Bellechasse," 
 of which Mr. Benjamin would tell them nothing till 
 they saw it. And the quaint old Creole house then oc 
 cupying the place rooms all in a long row, galleries 
 front and back, walls tinted in delicate colors and 
 frescoed with the queerest scenes of beribboned gon 
 dolas and fantastic shepherds, the lovely garden, 
 the mighty live-oaks, certainly did charm them. 
 More precious to them and to him, however, was the 
 thought that now at last there was a home. They 
 
 1 Conversation with Mrs. Popham. 
 
58 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 deemed the old house quite good enough, but he had 
 already planned the larger mansion which still stands 
 and which soon replaced the smaller and less comfort 
 able one. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin's mother, however, did not long sur 
 vive, dying in the autumn of 1847. Then Mrs. Levy 
 was installed as mistress of the new house, which her 
 devoted brother was determined to make as pleasant a 
 home as loving thought could, and to which came 
 other members of the family. She was a little older 
 than himself, and had always been looked up to as a 
 sort of superior being. Indeed, those who knew her 
 bear witness to her wonderful intellect, her wit, her 
 charm of manner, in all things like her brother, and 
 always the sharer of his perplexities, his triumphs, 
 his troubles, as much as if she were part of himself. 
 
 Though the plantation was remote from the city, 
 they were not cut off from the world. Before their 
 coming, Mr. Benjamin, recovering the use of his eyes, 
 had partially taken up his practice in New Orleans 
 again, and, in fact, was j ust at this time coming into 
 wider prominence. In 1847 he had been appointed 
 counsel to the California Land Commissioners, on be 
 half of the Federal government. In this position his 
 familiarity with French and Spanish, and with the 
 Spanish system of law, similar to that of Louisiana, 
 gave him an extraordinary advantage. His services 
 so added to his prestige that he was sought and re 
 ceived big fees, for many important cases involving 
 California lands ; and in October, 1848, he was ad 
 mitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. Whatever the charms of "Belle- 
 chasse," it was manifest that destiny would not let 
 
LAW AND SUGAB 59 
 
 him rest a sugar-planter. He did not live on the 
 plantation, therefore, but in New Orleans, going down 
 to it every week-end, and only occasionally indulging 
 himself in a longer stay there. 
 
 Both he and his sister delighted in entertaining, and 
 understood the art. Almost every Saturday Mrs. Levy 
 learned to look for a boat-load of guests, old and 
 young, to enliven the house for a few days ; and some 
 times even this excellent housekeeper was put to it to 
 provide for the comfort of more company than she had 
 counted on ; and though " J. P.," as he was affection 
 ately called, generally brought with him a generous 
 lot of provisions, fruit, and delicacies from New 
 Orleans, it sometimes necessitated very careful manip 
 ulation of the available " loaves and fishes" to feed 
 the hungry. Among those who came so frequently as 
 to be almost a member of the household was M. Auguste 
 St. Martin, Mr. Benjamin's father-in-law, a most de 
 lightful old gentleman, who could tell the young folk 
 thrilling tales of the horrors of the great West Indian 
 slave insurrection. Then there were the two Hunting- 
 ton brothers, with whom Mr. Benjamin kept bachelors 7 
 quarters on Polymnia Street in the city. And fre 
 quently, for quite long visits, came the dried-up little 
 chemist, Eillieux, always the centre of an admiring 
 and interested group of planters from the neighbor 
 hood as he explained this or that point in the chemistry 
 of sugar or the working of his apparatus ; for by this 
 time had begun that immense expansion of the sugar 
 industry, thanks to the persistent experiments of such 
 pioneers as the Fouchers and Valcour Aime and now 
 Benjamin, and thanks also to the substantial tariff 
 Congress had been induced to put upon the product. 
 
60 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 " Bellechasse" became not only a sort of social focus 
 for the planters of the neighborhood, but the scene of 
 a symposium, as it were, on sugar. Who would have 
 believed that scarce fifty years had passed since the 
 time when it had been firmly believed that Louisiana 
 cane would not make sugar ! 
 
 But though the host naturally delighted in the 
 companionship of such men, he was always ready to 
 enter into the pleasures of the younger people. His 
 niece, then just entering womanhood, found him her 
 most sympathetic confidant in any girlish troubles, 
 and many a situation, seeming tragic to her young 
 heart, was made easy after a stroll about the garden 
 with the great lawyer, who was to her like one of her 
 own age, only more wise and gentle than any other. 
 For young girls he had a great affection. When they 
 gathered about the table of an evening, it was his 
 favorite custom to test their wits in the sport of cap 
 ping verses a pastime long obsolete one suspects only 
 because of the inferior culture in literature, for in 
 those days people read and learned by heart the 
 classics with which we now decorate locked book 
 cases. Mr. Benjamin had a wonderful stock of verse 
 in his memory, and would pour forth scrap after 
 scrap, with a challenge to them to place the quota 
 tion. Or when midnight approached in stormy season, 
 and the nervous tension of his auditors prepared them 
 for such experiences, he told some horror tale, work 
 ing carefully up to the awful catastrophe and suddenly 
 crying out, "Boo!" Whereat at least one in the 
 group (his younger sister, afterward Mrs. Krutt- 
 schnitt), invariably shrieked, to his great delight. 
 
 Unforeseen disasters, however, were soon to end the 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 61 
 
 pleasant days at "Bellechasse." The great river rose 
 and overflowed its banks. Though his own front 
 levees held, there were crevasses on neighboring places 
 that let in the backwater. Up and up it crept, into 
 the yard, to the very steps of the house, the yard be 
 ing filled with cattle seeking the high ground, and even 
 deer driven from the swamps in this emergency for 
 safety near man. The growing crop was destroyed, 
 for cane perishes quickly under water ; even the seed- 
 cane was gone. And then a friend, for whom Mr. 
 Benjamin had endorsed a note of $60,000, failed to 
 meet his obligations, and the endorser was called upon 
 to pay. He had to give up the expensive home at 
 "Bellechasse," and resume with all his old energy his 
 practice in New Orleans. The family, removing for a 
 short time to another plantation above the city, then 
 went to live in a house he bought for them, at the 
 corner of Nashville and Naiades (now St. Charles) 
 Avenues, where they were to remain till expelled by 
 the Federal troops. The locality was then too remote 
 from the city for him to live with them, though there 
 was a railway connecting the suburb of Carrollton 
 with what seemed the distant city, now grown miles 
 beyond this point. He continued to reside with the 
 Huntingtons, on Polymnia Street, but dined almost 
 every day with his family, sometimes notifying Mrs. 
 Levy that he expected to bring guests, or longed for 
 one of his favorite delicacies. i i Have broiled chickens 
 for dinner, " he would say, "also plenty of butter on 
 'em ; you know how I like it done." 
 
 So ends the plantation episode of this varied career, 
 in disappointment and financial disaster, through no 
 fault of his own. But there was no check apparent to 
 
62 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the world in the triumphant career. Few even of his 
 intimate friends knew the extent of the loss ; and with 
 undiniinished zeal and hopefulness he set about re 
 building the shattered fortune. 
 
 Before we turn to take up other threads of the life, 
 it may be well to note some of the lessons of this plan 
 tation experience. As owner of " Bellechasse," he had 
 also become a slaveholder, and had thus had practical 
 knowledge of the slave system. From this he could 
 judge how false were the lurid pictures of Louisiana 
 plantations drawn by the Northern radicals. Some 
 few of his slaves were still living a year or two since, 
 and would tell visitors all sorts of tales of the master 
 of long ago ; none but kindly memories, and romantic 
 legends of the days of glory on the old place, such 
 as the setting up of the plantation bell, still there, 
 into whose molten metal Mr. Benjamin is said to have 
 cast two hundred silver dollars to give it sweet tone. 
 Slavery in practice, then, was familiar to him, and 
 seemed no wrong, certainly far from the thing it was 
 pictured to be. Moreover, in the actual business of 
 planting, it was inevitable that the wider aspects of 
 agriculture in the South should be revealed to his 
 trained mind. His subsequent views of the economics 
 of the slavery question would take their coloring from 
 his own experience, an experience which enlisted his 
 head as well as his heart on the side of the planter to 
 whom emancipation conveyed the threat, almost the 
 certainty, of financial ruin and the gravest social 
 perils. And in the lull of continuous hammering away 
 at the law, in the greater leisure, brief though it was, 
 of plantation life, his mind was left free for specula- 
 
LAW AND SUGAR 63 
 
 tions other than legal or forensic. It is perhaps no 
 mere barren coincidence that just at this time he en 
 gaged in politics, as if suddenly aware of the importance 
 of things that had not interested him before. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 
 
 INTELLIGENT English observers, such as Mr. Bryce, 
 have noted that a very large proportion of American 
 public men are lawyers, at least in training if not in 
 practice. This was more true in the old South, per 
 haps, than it is to-day ; scores of the notable men of 
 that by-gone society are betrayed by the title of Judge, 
 while even the Generals and Colonels (as abundant then 
 as now) will frequently be found to be merely lawyer- 
 politicians masquerading in those most unexceptionable 
 and useful martial titles. Most politicians, in fact, 
 were lawyers, and it might be said that most lawyers 
 were also politicians. It is therefore not surprising to 
 discover Mr. Benjamin very early seduced from law 
 into politics. 
 
 Before the first decade of his life in New Orleans had 
 passed, we find him taking a share in local politics, 
 serving on city or parish executive committees, and 
 occasionally making a speech that the newspapers con 
 sider of sufficient moment to mention, but not at first 
 himself a candidate. In order to understand many of 
 the points that will arise in our discussion of Mr. 
 Benjamin in public life, it will be necessary briefly 
 to explain some of the peculiar features of politics in 
 Louisiana in the forties. 
 
 In the first place, quite irrespective of party, the 
 population of Louisiana, and of New Orleans in par 
 ticular, was divided by differences of language and 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 65 
 
 nationality that, on rare occasions, might cause almost 
 as much mutual distrust as if the one party or the 
 other had been actually hostile foreigners. There 
 were two languages, recognized not merely under the 
 law, by the printing of the constitution in French and 
 English, and by similar dual publication of all public 
 documents, but by custom as well, in the daily prac 
 tice of those who still formed a considerable proportion 
 of the total white population of the state. The French, 
 more numerous, though not in the majority in the 
 southern portion of Louisiana, and the English, settling 
 in constantly increasing numbers in the Felicianas, in 
 the rich alluvial parishes from Bed Eiver to the 
 Arkansas line, and in the hilly northwestern parishes, 
 might oppose each other on some points quite without 
 regard to supposed party affiliations. The French 
 Creole might be a Democrat, or he might be a Whig, 
 but in the eyes of his English neighbor he was always 
 a Frenchman, constitutionally opposed to development 
 and progress. 
 
 It should be said, injustice, that such narrow preju 
 dice very rarely led to serious conflict, and that or 
 dinarily the only distinctions of moment in politics 
 were those between the Whigs and the Democrats. Of 
 the still vigorous party inspired by Webster and Clay, 
 Mr. Benjamin was from the first a warm supporter, 
 and no small share of the flashes of success that came 
 to it in the last decade of its existence in Louisiana 
 is attributable to his energy and political sagacity. 
 This was a time of desperate struggle for the Whigs, 
 threatened at first by defeat at the hands of the new 
 and popular Democracy with its Jacksonian cult ; then 
 menaced by insidious Native American attacks, and 
 
66 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 at last suddenly and forever extinguished in the storm 
 clouds of the conflict whose coming there was no longer 
 a Webster or a Clay to hinder. And in the fierce 
 party fights that I shall have to record, not the most 
 spotless gentleman could hope to escape with reputa 
 tion unassailed. Mr. Benjamin, being often in the fore 
 front of his party as campaign manager or as candi 
 date, came in for an extra share of scurrilous abuse 
 from opposition newspapers at a time when American 
 journalism was incredibly coarse and brutal. 
 
 Louisiana had been rather steady as a Whig state, 
 having a conservative electorate under the rather re 
 strictive suffrage qualifications of the state constitution 
 of 1812. But about 1840 the waves of Democracy were 
 rising steadily, and nothing but efforts of an extra 
 ordinary vigor could long secure Whig victories in 
 Louisiana. In the local elections in New Orleans in 
 April, 1842, the Whigs were defeated, and hence re 
 doubled their exertions to win at least some offices in 
 the state campaign, which then took place in July. 
 For the first time, Mr. Benjamin threw himself into 
 the contest with that energy which had already won 
 signal triumphs in his profession. He was a candidate 
 for the lower house of the General Assembly, and his 
 office on Exchange Place was frequently the meeting- 
 place, and, on election day, the headquarters of the 
 Whig executive committee. 1 
 
 Elections in New Orleans in those days were always 
 characterized by fraud, attempted or achieved, and 
 not infrequently by violence and bloodshed. Though 
 the suffrage was restricted by property and other 
 qualifications, the professional voter was far more in 
 
 1 See New Orleans Bee. April 4, 20 ; June 4, 25 ; July 1, 4, 5. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 67 
 
 evidence and far more dangerous than now ; and as 
 there was no system of registration, only the most 
 cumbrous and uncertain method of deciding, at the 
 very polls, whether or not the voter presenting himself 
 was properly qualified, " repeating " became so easy 
 as to cease to be a crime in the eyes of many, and a de 
 termined and reckless minority could, by precipitating 
 contests at the polls, or by actual violence, either re 
 tard the election or actually drive away hostile votes. 
 The more candid members of both parties admitted 
 and deplored these irregularities ; but naturally the 
 defeated faction, of whatever party, was loud in charges 
 of fraud on the part of the victors. 
 
 In this particular election the Whigs were, in the 
 main, successful, and the Democratic papers, such as 
 the Jeffersoniau and the Courier, made allegations of 
 extraordinary fraud in New Orleans, naming Benjamin 
 as the person chiefly responsible. Under the prop 
 erty qualification clause of the constitution, it had been 
 held that ownership of a carriage or cab, proved by 
 payment of a license tax, was sufficient to qualify a 
 voter. The Democratic papers attributed the sugges 
 tion of this idea to the acute lawyer who had taken so 
 conspicuous a part in Whig councils. They stated, 
 moreover, that licenses had been issued on cabs which 
 had no existence except in the necessity for Whig 
 votes, and that hundreds of votes had been cast by 
 this ingenious trick, since the inspectors at the polls 
 had no time or opportunity to examine into the real 
 existence of the cabs, but must accept the license re 
 ceipt as evidence of bona fide ownership. 
 
 There were frauds, no doubt, in the election ; but 
 there is nothing but partisan accusation based on ex- 
 
68 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 aggerated suspiciousuess to show either that the num 
 ber of fraudulent votes was very considerable, or that 
 Mr. Benjamin had anything whatever to do with the 
 " cab votes." l Following a rule almost inviolate with 
 him, he made no public denial of the newspaper 
 calumnies, though it must have been exasperating to 
 have this same charge raked up and vociferously urged 
 at every election in which his name came before the 
 people in 1844, in 1848, in 1852, in 1858. 
 
 With or without "cab votes," Mr. Benjamin was 
 elected to the legislature, 2 and served in the last ses 
 sions held under the old constitution of the state. As 
 a legislator he showed himself businesslike and re 
 sourceful, but no measure of importance was considered 
 during his term ; for the nation was just catching its 
 breath between the great financial panics that marked 
 the Jacksouian era, and Louisiana was preparing to 
 call a convention to give a constitution that would, by 
 some yet undiscovered method, prevent wild-cat banks 
 and hydrocephalous trusts without throttling finance 
 and commerce, and that would tie up the General As 
 sembly in knots of limitations which might prevent it 
 from robbing the people and yet leave it freedom of 
 action in case it should by any chance prove honest 
 and capable. With this increasing distrust of the de 
 mocracy for its own chosen representatives, Benjamin 
 was then heartily in sympathy. He approved of the 
 convention which was to work such marvels for Louisi 
 ana, and was put forward as a candidate for member 
 ship in it in the spring of 1844. 
 
 1 Cf. the New Orleans Bee, July 9 ; Jeffersonian, July 6, 1842 ; 
 Courier, July 3, 5, 6, and Aug. 3-9, 1844, etc. 
 
 2 New Orleans Bee, July 5, 1842. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 69 
 
 In this election one hears the first suggestions, 
 really quite without serious foundation that Benja 
 min was an adherent of the American or Know Nothing 
 party. Since the most vital of the ill-considered prin 
 ciples of that mushroom party were open hostility to 
 citizens of foreign birth and scarce concealed hostility 
 to Catholics, and since Benjamin was himself foreign 
 born, his wife a Catholic, and he himself absolutely 
 tolerant of the religious as of the political opinions of 
 others, it would seem that the mere suggestion of his 
 being a Know Nothing would have been sufficiently 
 absurd to refute itself. But, strange to say, there were 
 facts to lend color to the charge. 
 
 By 1844 Mr. Benjamin had become interested not 
 only in other matters than law, such as the cultiva 
 tion of sugar and the life of a planter, but his view of 
 political questions had broadened till he was capable 
 of foreseeing from what quarter danger threatened not 
 Louisiana only but the whole South, with its entire 
 social and agricultural system dependent on slavery. 
 He was already, as we shall see from a significant 
 speech in the convention, making plans for the de 
 fense of Louisiana. In what he says there, and in the 
 imperfectly reported fragments of political speeches 
 during the preceding campaign, it is made very clear 
 that he considered unrestricted naturalization l of im 
 migrants into the state, whether " foreign born' 7 or 
 migrating from the Northern states, a source of danger 
 to the community. In so far his opinions seemed to 
 coincide with those of the American party. 
 
 1 Here and in a following chapter I use the term " naturaliza 
 tion," meaning acquisition of the suffrage in the state, because it is 
 so used by the contemporary papers ; naturalization, strictly speak 
 ing, is controlled by the Federal government. 
 
70 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 But Benjamin was too intelligent and too broad- 
 minded to become an adherent of such a party. At 
 first he was favorably impressed by the strict natural 
 ization requirements proposed by them, and expressed 
 his approval in such fashion as to compromise himself 
 to some extent. But he soon discovered that this or 
 ganization, with a no more definite policy than the ex 
 clusion of foreigners from citizenship and office, and 
 proposing to introduce into democratic American poli 
 tics the methods of the Carbonari, the Mafia, or other 
 Italian secret society, was no fit guardian of demo 
 cratic privileges. 
 
 Throughout the campaign which, for reasons to be ex 
 plained presently, was a long one, Benjamin and his col 
 league, O. M. Conrad, were frequently assailed as Know 
 Nothings by the Democratic papers. Part of this, it is 
 true, was merely for political effect ; without regard to 
 its veracity, a Democratic paper of 1844 would make 
 any assertion that it thought likely to help its faction, 
 even if the lie were detected after election. The Lou 
 isiana Courier -, in particular, makes repeated attacks on 
 this score ; and they are, so to speak, double-barreled, 
 the paper being published half in French and half in 
 English. It boldly asserts, in its two tongues, that 
 Benjamin and Conrad are 1 " opposed to the Catholic 
 religion because they belong to and act with a party 
 that avows its opposition to that mode of faith. Mr. 
 Conrad, we believe, was brought up in the Protestant 
 church. We know nothing of Mr. Benjamin's relig 
 ion.' 7 Nay, it appears from the Courier that these two 
 gentlemen were notorious for sullying l L the purity of the 
 ballot box," and, most horrible of all, both are guilty 
 
 Courier, Nov. 19, 20, 23, 1844. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 71 
 
 of lese majeste, having dared to maintain that they 
 thought Judge Hall was perfectly right in imposing a 
 fine on General Andrew Jackson for some of his high 
 handed proceedings in New Orleans ! All of which 
 rather moves us to smile, and to doubt, especially 
 when we discover that this diligent champion of 
 the purity of the ballot has next to nothing to say of 
 the notorious Plaquemines election, in which Demo 
 cratic voters by hundreds were carried from New 
 Orleans to the voting place in that parish. 
 
 Though supported by one of the Know Nothing 
 papers, Benjamin continued to act with the Whigs. 
 In December, 1844, he and many other leading citi 
 zens of New Orleans signed a public call for the forma 
 tion of a ll Louisiana American party. 771 This was 
 not really a Know Nothing organization j its pur 
 poses were reform, especially reform of the ballot, and 
 reform of the naturalization laws. But its existence, 
 as an independent party, was precarious, and Benja 
 min's connection with it was certainly little more than 
 the signing of the call in the hope of bettering local 
 political conditions. His loyalty as a Whig was never 
 again impeached until the party ceased to have any 
 real existence. 
 
 This campaign, in which Benjamin manifested in 
 terest in matters other than local, may be said to be 
 the formal beginning of a political career henceforth 
 without interruption. It may be of value, therefore, 
 to note his opinions at this important period. 
 Fortunately, an accidental indisposition gives us a 
 better chance to get an idea of these views. He was 
 
 1 See the Tropic, Dec. 24 ; the call is signed by Glendy Burke, 
 W. C. C. Claiborne, W. A. Violett, etc., etc. Cf. Tropic, Nov. 20. 
 
72 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 announced to address a Whig meeting in New Orleans 
 on June 20th. If he had spoken, the Whig papers 
 would have garbled and praised the ' ' most eloquent 
 and argumentative effort it has been our pleasure to 
 hear in New Orleans' 7 ; but he was unable to speak, 
 and consequently sent a written statement of his views 
 to the papers a few days later. l 
 
 We find that he believes, in contrast to the extreme 
 Democrats, that the powers of the constitutional con 
 vention for which he is a candidate are not limited, but 
 unrestricted, the members being not mere legislative 
 representatives: "If there be a feature of our re 
 publican institutions to which we may point with 
 honor and pride, it is peculiarly this, that with us 
 changes of government are peaceful revolutions, and 
 not the fruit of civil war or dreadful strife ; and that it 
 is at all times within the power of a well ascertained 
 majority of the people to effect such changes without 
 danger and without commotion. As some honest 
 doubts are, however, entertained on this subject, I 
 should deem it advisable . . . that the labors of 
 the convention should not take effect till ratified by 
 the people. 77 He is in favor of reducing the suffrage 
 qualifications, being more democratic in this than on 
 any other point ; but he advocates something that was 
 regarded as tyrannous and unrepublican in those days : 
 "a registry system to prevent the fraudulent usurpa 
 tion of the electoral franchise by those [not] really en 
 titled to it." He shares the prevailing fear of wild-cat 
 banks, and would restrict the powers of the legislature 
 in regard to the formation of certain kinds of corpora 
 tions. And the following views on state banks are 
 
 1 See Tropic, June 25, 1844. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 73 
 
 decidedly more conservative than those prevailing a 
 generation before the Federal government had es 
 tablished its system of national banks. " It is too late 
 at the present day to question the right of the states to 
 charter banks, although I must confess that the strong 
 bearing of my mind has always been against the con 
 stitutionality of the exercise of such power by the 
 states. I have found it very difficult to reconcile the 
 idea of the coexistence of such a power with those con 
 fided by the Constitution of the United States to the 
 general government of coining money, regulating its 
 value, and regulating commerce, and with the prohi 
 bitions by which the states are prevented from coining 
 money, emitting bills of credit, or making anything 
 but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt. 
 . . . I shall vote, if elected, to prohibit the legis 
 lature from confiding to any body of individuals the 
 power of doing banking business as corporators unless 
 such corporators be individually liable for the debts 
 of the corporation to the whole extent of their for 
 tunes." 
 
 His program for the judiciary is also extremely con 
 servative. He advocates a judiciary appointed by the 
 governor and for good behavior, perhaps to be retired 
 after reaching the age of sixty ; but he notes that such 
 a provision would have deprived New York of the best 
 services of Chancellor Kent, and the Federal govern 
 ment of the best services of Marshall, a difficulty which 
 might be avoided by sanctioning reappointment for 
 short terms of judges who would otherwise be retired in 
 the plenitude of their powers. 
 
 In all this it will be noted that there is little tendency 
 to Democratic views, and no trace whatever of Know 
 
74 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Nothingism, or, as it was more irreverently called, 
 ' ' Sammy ism. ' ' 
 
 The election resulted in the choice of Conrad and 
 Benjamin to represent New Orleans in the convention. 
 As usual, there were complaints of fraud on both sides ; 
 but in this case Whigs and Democrats vied with each 
 other in condemning the disfranchisement, by election 
 inspectors, of a considerable body of voters who held 
 naturalization papers said to have been irregularly 
 issued by a judge who was impeached and convicted 
 about this time. But not till long after the election do 
 we hear of any accusation against Mr. Benjamin, or any 
 hint that his right to a seat in the convention was likely 
 to be disputed. 
 
 The convention met on the appointed day, Monday, 
 August 5, 1844, at the little town of Jackson. This 
 was a mere village, with no sufficient accommodations 
 for the delegates, with no watchful daily press (except 
 one poor little sheet that eked out a sort of parasitic 
 existence upon the official printing), and peculiarly in 
 accessible even now, sixty years later, being situated 
 about fifteen miles from the river which was at thai 
 time the great artery of communication. The selection 
 of such a place, suggestively named Jackson, repre 
 sented a victory of the Democrats in the legislature 
 which had called the convention. With all of his 
 might, Benjamin, aided by the members from New 
 Orleans, had fought against attempting to manufacture 
 a constitution in a corner, and at a season when the 
 state was liable not infrequently to devastating 
 epidemics of yellow fever ; but the Democrats, and in 
 deed most of the members from the rural constituen 
 cies, had, and still have, the most unreasoning and un- 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 75 
 
 controllable jealousy and fear of New Orleans. When 
 the convention met, however, and began to organize, it 
 was manifest that, although the Democrats elected 
 their candidate for presiding officer, the Whig element 
 was stronger. 
 
 At the first informal roll-call, Benjamin and Emile 
 La Sere, a Democrat, responded for New Orleans, and 
 both were allowed seats. Mr. Conrad, Benjamin' s duly 
 elected Whig colleague, did not appear in the conven 
 tion for several days, but his name was registered by a 
 friend before his arrival. It was evident that the seats 
 held by Benjamin and Conrad were to be contested by 
 the Democrats ; but so little heed was paid to the pos 
 sibility of a dispute that, before the Committee on Elec 
 tions brought in its report on the credentials of 
 members, Benjamin was appointed to the Committees 
 on Contingent Expenses, on the Third Article of the 
 Constitution (Executive Department), and on the Bill 
 of Rights (Ninth Article), Mr. Conrad also serving on 
 the last named. That same day, however (August 
 10th), the president, Joseph Walker, submitted to the 
 convention " letters from Emile La Sere and J. B. 
 Plauche, claiming to be entitled to seats in the conven 
 tion, as having been duly elected from the Parish of 
 Orleans." The letters were referred to the Committee 
 on Elections. 
 
 Before this committee there was a vigorous fight, 
 echoes of which reach us through the debates of the 
 convention. Neither side won a decisive triumph, but 
 the strategic victory was on the side of Benjamin and 
 Conrad, who continued to occupy their seats and act 
 as members of the body. The committee, not being 
 able to settle the question, reported the contest back 
 
76 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 to the convention. It appeared that the Whig candi 
 dates had been chosen by a fair majority on the face 
 of the returns, but the contestants declared there had 
 been serious irregularities in the election, and sub 
 mitted proof of their allegations. The most impor 
 tant piece of evidence was from the parish Judge, 
 Charles Maurian (a political opponent of Benjamin and 
 Conrad), whose duty it was to make the election re 
 turns, and who had done so, adding marginal notes on 
 the very documents themselves to show that, in his 
 opinion, the returns from certain wards should be 
 thrown out because only one inspector had signed 
 them. With these wards eliminated, the Democratic 
 candidates would have been elected by a small margin. 
 Benjamin, in answer to this, very properly contended 
 that he and Conrad had a right to have evidence too, 
 since the committee had undertaken to go behind the 
 returns ; and he now applied to it for process to be 
 directed to the city of New Orleans to take testi 
 mony to sustain his allegations and to rebut those of 
 the contestants. 
 
 In the convention this contest was to occupy the 
 whole of the session at Jackson. Mr. Conrad spoke for 
 hours, and repeatedly, on the subject, while General 
 Solomon Downs and other Democratic leaders replied 
 at still greater length. Benjamin spoke, also, though 
 not so much ; and there is nothing in the speeches of 
 his opponents to disturb our conviction that he was in 
 the right and duly elected. The difficulty seemed to be 
 no nearer settlement than at the beginning, when, on 
 August 21st, the convention having already agreed to 
 adjourn to meet again in New Orleans on the second 
 Tuesday in January, 1845, Benjamin and Conrad stated 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 77 
 
 that they would, just before adjournment, resign their 
 seats and stand for reelection, if their opponents 
 would abide by this decision. La Sere and Plauche 
 agreed, the new election was held on November 25th, 
 and the Whigs were again elected, by a much larger 
 majority. 1 
 
 Very little was attempted or accomplished in the 
 three weeks that the convention sat in Jackson. The 
 members were all too busy in the trial of strength be 
 tween the Whigs and the Democrats on the seating of 
 Benjamin and Conrad, and on the adjournment of the 
 convention to New Orleans. The " little member 
 from Orleans," with his untiring energy, his affable 
 manners, and his tactful readiness to meet the views 
 of others half-way in order to gain his object, was 
 credited with having a good deal to do with the 
 decision on the latter point. The Democratic minority 
 presented a protest against the adjournment to New 
 Orleans, signed by twenty-nine members, which is so 
 typical of the " party thunder" of two generations 
 ago that I must quote a part of it ; the contrast be 
 tween this, which smacks of Solomon W. Downs, and 
 Benjamin's style should be noted. When the con 
 vention met in Jackson, say the Democrats, "all was 
 bright and cheering as in the morning of time ; party 
 spirit recoiled to its bed ; the passions of men were 
 soothed, from the happy reflection that a glorious era 
 had come in Louisiana ; the demon of discord aroused 
 not from his lair, but peace prevailed universally and 
 without interruption. . . . But the evil day came, 
 
 1 For this contest, see Debates of Convention, 1844-1845, passim ; 
 and newspapers, especially Tronic. Sept. 30, Nov. 14. and Courier 
 Nov. 19-26, 1844. 
 
78 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and with it a postponement of the labors enjoined upon 
 the convention. . . . The fiat has gone forth, re 
 gardless of reason and the demands of the people. 
 No epidemic darts from the noonday beams or hangs 
 upon the curtain of night to alarm the stranger or dis 
 compose the citizen ; no foreign enemy is upon our 
 borders to lay waste our fields and eat our substance ; 
 and no internal commotion, political or religious, dis 
 turbs the peaceful quietude of the country in which 
 we are called to deliberate ; but notwithstanding this 
 favorable state of things for the accomplishment of 
 the grandest object ever assigned to man, the millennial 
 day of Louisiana is still left distant in the womb of 
 time." No one would have taken more pleasure than 
 the fun-loving Benjamin in remarking sotto voce to 
 General Downs "that it was still there." 
 
 On the reassembling of the convention 1 in New 
 Orleans, it became immediately apparent that, though 
 a temporary combination of votes had caused its re 
 moval from Jackson, the jealousy of the country 
 members toward the city was very active, and would 
 occasion the most violent conflicts. Benjamin had not 
 been elected as the head of the city delegation ; such 
 a position might rather have been claimed by the 
 eloquent and fiery Frenchman, Pierre Soule, or the 
 honest, sturdy German, Christian Eoselius, both of 
 whom, though certainly already surpassed at the bar 
 by this extraordinary young man, were older and more 
 experienced politicians. But in the actual adjustment 
 of the matters in dispute between the city and the 
 
 1 Newspaper reports of proceedings are very meagre, hence I rely 
 in the following pages chiefly on the Debates, giving specific refer 
 ence only for matters of importance. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 79 
 
 country, Benjamin took the lead, and brought about 
 a settlement which, though not satisfactory to him or 
 to his colleagues, was better than their uncompromis 
 ing methods would ever have attained. 
 
 In connection with this matter, Benjamin spoke 
 several times. So extreme was the jealousy of New 
 Orleans that, although the city had nearly one half of 
 the total population of the state, it was attempted to 
 restrict her representation to twenty members, even to 
 eighteen, in a house of one hundred j nay, to provide 
 that, whatever the city's population, not more than 
 one-sixth of the one hundred members should be from 
 New Orleans. Finding himself unable, in the com 
 mittee which had charge of the apportionment of rep 
 resentation, to get anything like justice for the city, 
 Benjamin had consented to a compromise. He was 
 full of the spirit of concession. Even such an op 
 ponent as Downs, the leader of the extreme Democratic 
 faction, said : ' u Mr. Benjamin, with that spirit of 
 truth and candor for which he is justly distinguished, 
 has come into our midst in the spirit of conciliation 
 and harmony ; . . . and if any good should result 
 from his offer, ... to him alone should belong the 
 honor and the credit of the final settlement of this 
 difficult question. " This particular compromise was 
 not successful ; but, as I have said, the arrangement 
 was on the basis of mutual concessions suggested, and 
 supported in spite of some ill-natured comments, by 
 Benjamin, whose attitude toward opponents through 
 out his political life is well indicated in one of the 
 short speeches he made in the endeavor to win over 
 his obstinate colleagues from New Orleans : 
 1 Debates, March 3, p. 382 ; for Benjamin's speech, March 6, p. 387. 
 
80 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 "How can any one expect that lie can induce those 
 who differ with him to change their opinions, when 
 he begins by telling them that he is impracticably 
 wedded to his own, and that whatever may be their 
 arguments he will not change that opinion? This 
 question, I am sorry to see, has been discussed in such 
 a spirit of intolerance as to have caused much warmth 
 of feeling, and to have provoked personalities that 
 ought to have been avoided. . . . One of my 
 brother delegates [Mr. Eoselius] has told us that he will 
 never consent to a compromise of principle, and so 
 persuaded is he that he is right in that doctrine, that I 
 have no hopes of inducing him to yield his support to 
 my proposition. I think he is wrong, and I regret his 
 determination. With similar resolutions, it may be 
 said to be impossible to form a constitution. We have 
 the knowledge that there were great divergences of 
 opinion in the Federal convention, and it is a notori 
 ous fact that the Constitution never would have been 
 formed had there not been mutual concessions on the 
 part of its illustrious framers. If a similar spirit had 
 not pervaded the Virginia convention, to which refer 
 ence has so frequently been had, and in which some 
 of the same distinguished men participated, the con 
 stitution of that state would never have been formed. 
 . . . It appears that the delegation from the city 
 must make concessions ... or withdraw from 
 the convention. There is no other alternative. I am 
 as anxious as my colleagues can be to insist upon the 
 just proportion of power belonging to the city, but as 
 I am met by the determined and impracticable resist 
 ance of the majority of this body, I am willing to 
 make some concessions, provided the country is dis- 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 81 
 
 posed to meet us in something like a similar spirit, 
 and will not expect the city to make all the sacri 
 fices." 
 
 Throughout the session of the convention, which was 
 extraordinarily prolonged by the interminable debates, 
 the endless and useless motions to reconsider, on such 
 questions as the basis of representation for the state, 
 the apportionment of representatives, the boundaries 
 of senatorial districts, and the qualifications to be ex 
 acted of members of the legislature, Mr. Benjamin was 
 almost constantly in attendance. With morning and 
 evening sittings, we can only wonder how a man busy 
 with an extensive law practice, and devoting at least 
 part of his time to his plantation interests, could find 
 it possible to be present day in and day out at the con 
 vention, from January 14th to May 16th. He did go, 
 somehow, and not infrequently his presence enabled 
 him to frustrate schemes hostile to the city, as when 
 some unscrupulous member, noting that the house was 
 thin, would move to reconsider the never-ending ap 
 portionment of members in the legislature, which the 
 city delegation had fondly hoped was finally settled by 
 the last three-hour wrangle. No member from the 
 city, indeed, was so regular in attendance, or so active 
 in many matters before the convention ; and the fact 
 that Benjamin bore the lion's share of the actual work, 
 the drawing up of articles for consideration, the 
 correction of absolutely glaring errors in those sub 
 mitted by others, the mere auditing of accounts and 
 keeping track of the printing on behalf of the Com 
 mittee on Contingent Expenses, is manifest in the 
 debates, and was recognized by the newspapers then 
 and when the next convention assembled. 
 
82 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 We should be utterly mistaken, however, if we im 
 agined that he was either an interminable or an in 
 cessant speaker. He spoke frequently, for he had 
 something practical or sensible to say or some definite 
 object in saying it, on most of the important matters to 
 be considered ; but he does not approach the Demo 
 cratic leader, Downs. He never made a long speech, 
 again in agreeable contrast to his oratorical opponent. 
 And it will be seen from the fragments of his addresses 
 which I shall find occasion to give, that his style is sim 
 ple, direct, lucid, so plain as to come near baldness 
 were it not for the skill with which he handles it ; this, 
 too, is in marked contrast to the Gothic splendors of 
 American forensics at that time. Perhaps legal train 
 ing, especially in the unemotional commercial law to 
 which he had chiefly devoted himself, had something 
 to do with this peculiarity of style, a peculiarity which 
 has its exact analogue in Mr. Benjamin's common- 
 sense businesslike methods in this convention and in 
 other similar bodies. It was most unprofessional, 
 from the point of view of the politician, this acting on 
 the assumption that the making of a constitution was 
 a business, and should be attended to like any other 
 business, with the object of getting it done as speedily 
 and in as workmanlike a manner as possible. 
 
 As indicated in the statement of his opinions before 
 election, Benjamin was extremely conservative in most 
 of his views. His vote was given unhesitatingly for 
 an appointed judiciary ; he advocated an appointed 
 secretary of state ; and he wished to make amendment 
 of the constitution even more difficult than it was 
 finally made by the convention. He spoke and voted, 
 vainly, in favor of an article requiring a registration 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 83 
 
 law, which he and Mr. Conrad advocated on grounds 
 that are now the axioms of political science foremost 
 of all, the inevitable temptation to corruption, but 
 the Democrats declared registration un-American, 
 derogatory to the dignity and independence of freemen, 
 dangerous, oppressive, tyrannous, and more corrupt 
 than absolutely unregulated voting. 1 
 
 But there are two important questions on which Mr. 
 Benjamin spoke and voted in a way which, then and 
 afterward, rendered him liable to attack. The first 
 of these was " naturalization " (by which, as noted 
 above, was meant the acquisition of the suffrage), and 
 the special qualifications to be imposed upon candi 
 dates for the General Assembly and for the governor 
 ship. The second was the basis that should be adopted 
 in computing representation in the legislature. 
 
 When, on January 21st, the question was discussed, 
 whether or not it would be advisable to require 
 a term of residence in the state as a pre-requisite to 
 membership in the legislature, Benjamin was among 
 the considerable minority who voted in favor of insist 
 ing that no man should be a representative who had 
 not been four, even five years, a resident and citizen. 2 
 And when the matter came up again two or three 
 days later, he made a remarkable speech in favor of a 
 similar limitation, saying : "Any stranger that would 
 have entered this room during any stage of our discus 
 sion would have supposed that we were debating a 
 constitution for Europeans, or the people of the other 
 states, and not for Louisiana. For the whole burthen 
 of what has been said has been rather what privileges 
 
 1 Debates, pp. 187, 289, 406; cf. Picayune, Feb. 8. 
 
 2 Debates, p. 88 ; Picayune, Jan. 24. 
 
84 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 should be granted to strangers coming among us, than 
 what rights and what guaranties we should secure to 
 ourselves. . . . The question before us, divested 
 of all the extraneous matters with which it has been 
 clogged, is a simple one. 1 It is a question of security. 
 This state is peculiarly situated, and her position ex 
 acts some measures of prudent forethought, in order to 
 shield her from assaults upon a vulnerable point. Her 
 peculiar institutions are liable to attack, and it is to 
 preclude the danger which menaces her that some 
 measure, similar to the one under discussion, is deemed 
 of vital importance. . . . What is really the mat 
 ter in dispute I It is this, that no one shall be eligible 
 to the General Assembly who has not resided four years 
 in the state, if he be a citizen of the United States by 
 birth or by adoption. What objection can there pos 
 sibly exist to this provision ? It is assumed that it is 
 an unequal, unjust, and anti-republican restriction. 
 . . . Where is the impropriety of protecting, by re 
 quiring residence the institutions we have met to re 
 model and to perfect ? . . . All are willing that 
 two years' residence, should be required. That is con- 
 
 1 The debates are miserably reported, and there was complaint 
 of this at the time. The reporter, incredible as it may seem, was 
 not a stenographer, and we can quite believe, as one member re 
 marked in excusing him, that " it was very difficult to report the 
 remarks of gentlemen that spoke with the fluency and rapidity of 
 the delegate from New Orleans " meaning Benjamin. Speeches are 
 rarely reported in direct discourse, and on the present occasion the 
 ingenious reporter has mingled direct and indirect discourse indis 
 criminately. I have taken the liberty, here and elsewhere below, 
 of reproducing simply the direct discourse. Where there is such 
 inaccuracy, it would not be just, of course, to accept any speech as 
 a sample of the speaker's oratory ; but the reports are sufficiently 
 trustworthy on mere matters of fact to warrant us in taking 
 them as fairly representing the speaker's opinions. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 86 
 
 ceded to be correct. But four years is ' aristocratic, 7 
 an attempt to create a ' privileged class/ a * nobility.' 
 . . . There is one subject that I approach with 
 great reluctance. It is a subject of vital importance to 
 the Southern states, and should produce at least 
 unanimity in our councils, to avert a common danger. 
 It is not the part of wisdom, however we may differ, to 
 wrangle where the safety of all may be compromitted. 
 I would scorn to appeal to party considerations. A 
 question may arise in a few months that will obliterate 
 all party distinctions, when there will be neither Whigs 
 nor Democrats ; when the whole South will coalesce 
 and form a single party, and that party will be for the 
 protection of our hearths, of our families, of our homes. 
 That man must be indeed blind not to perceive from 
 whence the danger comes. The signs are pregnant 
 with evil. The speck upon the horizon that at first 
 was no bigger than a man's hand, overshadows us, and 
 there is not a breeze that blows that does not sound 
 the tocsin of alarm. The light is shut out, and we 
 should prepare ourselves to meet the emergency, when 
 ever it may come. Our organic law would be deficient 
 if it did not provide a bulwark, if it did not guard us 
 from the machinations of an insidious foe. The course 
 of events within the last few months proves that we 
 must rely upon ourselves and our Southern confederates 
 to maintain our rights and cause them to be respected, 
 and not upon the stipulations in the Federal compact. 
 We must insist for ample security for those rights." 
 
 Mr. Benjamin was considered an alarmist when he 
 spoke thus in 1845. He was still so regarded when 
 he repeated the substance of his warning in 1855. 
 Whether the means with which he proposed to meet 
 
86 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the danger were adequate or not, events have proven 
 his fears too well-founded. It is clear from this speech 
 and others on similar subjects that, as noted above, 
 two years of experience in public life had enabled him 
 to rise above mere Whig partisanship to something 
 like a broad view of the conditions affecting not only 
 Louisiana but the whole South. In this particular 
 instance his policy was for the safeguarding of Louisi 
 ana alone. He would have inserted in her constitu 
 tion every provision, however remote its application 
 might appear, to preclude the possibility of her own 
 bona fide citizens losing control of the government of 
 the state. The justification of slavery is quite aside 
 from the purposes of this comment. Slavery has long 
 since ceased to be an academic question or a question 
 of any sort. In the Northern states at this time it 
 was an academic question. In Louisiana, and to Mr. 
 Benjamin and the great majority of the people, it was 
 not an academic question, but merely a question of 
 their right to their own property, a right which was 
 menaced by Abolition activities. The idea that the 
 slave was property, just like any other property, was 
 as old, certainly, as the Constitution, though at first it 
 had been but a vague, inchoate notion. Little by little 
 finding articulate expression till it became a part of 
 the Southern political creed, it was vigorously re 
 asserted in broader terms in the Dred Scott Decision. 
 To the exposition, the extension and the advancement 
 of this idea, viz., that the slave was property, and that 
 therefore protection in the enjoyment of this property 
 must be assured to the owner by the Federal govern 
 ment, Benjamin was from this time forth to devote 
 much of his talent as a debater. 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 87 
 
 The same purpose on Mr. Benjamin's part, crops 
 out, though not openly avowed, in another remarkable 
 speech on his proposition that the governor should be 
 a native of the United States he would have pre 
 ferred to say, a native of the state. This speech ' was 
 made in reply to several long ones by those whose 
 views were more popular, especially Pierre Soule, 
 himself a native of France, who was so radical in his 
 opinions that he had been compelled to leave his home, 
 and who had since won a high and honorable rank as 
 lawyer, politician, and orator, in his adopted state. 
 In his opening words Mr. Benjamin avows his entire 
 responsibility for the proposition under discussion, and 
 that, " it was at my suggestion that the word * native 1 
 [the gist of the controversy] was inserted in the sec 
 tion now before us for our consideration. If therefore, 
 sir, there be censure to be cast upon any one for that 
 apparently objectionable word, upon my shoulders it 
 must in justice fall." He then replies to, or rather 
 utterly demolishes the constitutional arguments offered 
 by Soule, an easy task in this case, for Soule had 
 nothing to stand on when he maintained that it would 
 be unconstitutional for the state to require, like the 
 United States, that its chief executive should be a 
 native, showing that an article similar to the one 
 under discussion had been adopted in the constitutions 
 of Virginia, of Arkansas, of Alabama, and of Mis 
 souri, and had been sanctioned by the action of Con 
 gress in the case of the last three. 
 
 "In a word, then, sir, I assert that our power to in 
 sert the clause disputed is not a doubtful question ; 
 
 1 Debates, Feb. 14, pp. 221-234. 
 
88 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 that we have the power to do so constitutionally, and 
 the only question we now have to decide is, Is it ex 
 pedient for us to do so ? My own impression is that 
 we should unhesitatingly insert it, if we study our own 
 interests. When I first proposed to the committee to 
 insert it in the section, it was a natural instinct that 
 prompted me to believe that it was necessary. Since 
 then I have given the subject calm and serious de 
 liberation, and I have daily, nay, hourly, become 
 more and more convinced of the necessity and pro 
 priety of the measure. 
 
 " Sir, I have listened with delight to the eloquent 
 eulogy pronounced by the delegate from New Orleans 
 [Soule] on the brave men who lent us their aid in 1815 
 on Savary, St. Gemes, and their associates. I have 
 witnessed in imagination the memorable scenes so 
 graphically and eloquently described by the honorable 
 gentleman from Eapides [Mr. Brent], and I have felt 
 my heart glow with feelings of gratitude toward the 
 brave and generous men who, amidst the smoke and 
 carnage of battle breasted the British bayonets, and, 
 side by side with American citizens, periled their 
 lives in our country's cause. Honor and gratitude to 
 them all ! And I will yield to no man in expressing 
 on all occasions, and in all suitable manner, the 
 acknowledgments that are due to their eminent serv 
 ices. But, sir, let us not allow our feelings to ob 
 tain the mastery over our judgment. Those brave 
 men were the sons of France, and the enemy was the 
 hereditary foe of France. Sir, does the gentleman, 
 can any man, believe that, if our invaders had been 
 French, these gallant men would have gone to battle 
 against their countrymen I Sir, they would have re 
 coiled with horror at the forethought [sic] with the 
 same instinctive abhorrence as if called on to smite 
 the cheek of the mother that bore them. How then, 
 sir, can we place as the commander-in-chief of our 
 armies an individual who in the event of war with the 
 country of his birth would be exposed to this conflict 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 89 
 
 of duties and of feelings? The honorable gentleman 
 tells us that in an event like this, a gallant spirit, 
 stifling all that love of country, of our natal soil, that 
 the Creator has implanted in the breast of every man, 
 would take for his motto, l Fais ce que dois, advienne 
 que pourra. ' Sir, this may sound very finely in theory, 
 but every feeling of our nature would recoil from its 
 practice. I call on the gentleman to point out to me 
 the man, nay, sir, I ask if he himself, and surely 
 there is none whose eminence as a citizen would render 
 him more worthy of so exalted a station, I ask if he 
 himself, as commander of our armies, were called to 
 lead our forces into the field against the country of 
 his birth, would he not feel his inmost soul revolt at 
 the bare idea ? Whether the bare sight of the flag of 
 his native country would not bring back upon his 
 memory every thought and feeling of his childhood 
 and his youth, and whether he could steel his heart to 
 the task of carrying death and carnage into the midst 
 of those in whose ranks might, perchance, be found 
 the playmates of his childhood, the companions of his 
 youth, nay, perhaps a brother or a parent? Never, 
 sir, never could he do it. It is our duty then, sir, in 
 making this organic law, to provide in such a manner 
 as to render it impossible, in any contingency, for our 
 chief magistrate to be placed in such a position. The 
 necessity is too apparent to admit of doubt. . . . 
 
 "Once again, sir, let not the feelings which dictated 
 the proposal of this measure be misunderstood. Let 
 it not be said that it is an attack directed against the 
 naturalized citizen. He is received with open arms 
 into the country. Every avenue to fortune which 
 cupidity could desire, every path to office which the 
 most unbounded ambition can aspire [to], are all 
 opened to him. Is it too much to ask that there 
 should be one small spot reserved for the native of the 
 soil ? that the chief magistracy of the state, as that of 
 the United States, shall be regarded as a temple within 
 whose precincts none but the American people them- 
 
90 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 selves shall ever be permitted an entrance ? Our duty 
 to our country makes it necessary that we should so 
 determine, and I trust that such will be the vote of 
 this convention." 
 
 For one who was himself an adopted citizen, as he 
 said, but " sixteen years a resident in the state," and 
 whose career might certainly lead him to the governor 
 ship if he had any desire for it, this was a remarkable 
 position to assume. He was not satisfied with, though 
 he reluctantly accepted, the article as finally put into 
 the constitution, prescribing fifteen years' residence 
 for the office. And the motive underlying this and 
 other extreme undemocratic opinions was a wish, 
 which cannot but seem exaggerated, to * ' provide a 
 bulwark in our organic law against the machinations 
 of an insidious foe." 
 
 It was not often that Mr. Benjamin showed himself 
 lacking in tact and consideration for the feelings of 
 others. Sometimes, it is true, such an opponent as 
 the rather pompous Downs furnished so tempting a 
 mark for ready sarcasm as to be absolutely irresistible, 
 and Mr. Benjamin would succumb to temptation, and 
 afterward have to exert all of his affability to smooth 
 the ruffled dignity of his victim. But the closing part 
 of this speech is not judicious : the arguments adduced 
 could not carry conviction ; they might and did give 
 serious offense to the hypersensitive Creoles. The 
 next day the valuable time of the convention was 
 taken up by fiery vindications of the unimpeachable 
 patriotism of the Creoles of Louisiana, all of which 
 may be found in the Debates, printed at state expense. 
 Among those who spoke, the most remarkable and the 
 most effective was one long celebrated in local annals, 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 91 
 
 Bernard Marigny, whose immediate ancestors for 
 several generations had been Chevaliers of the Order 
 of Saint Louis ; who had squandered more money, 
 certainly, than any man in Louisiana ; who had been, 
 in 1803, the leader and pattern of the jeunesse doree ; 
 who had served in the first state convention of 1812 ; 
 who had visited and been received by that temporary 
 monarch, Louis Philippe, in return for hospitality 
 once accorded by the Marignys to a certain young 
 Louis Egalite with no place to lay his head ; and who, 
 finally, in spite of all this personal and ancestral con 
 nection with aristocracy, was almost a radical demo 
 crat. His reply, though less polished than Benjamin's 
 speech, and marred by outbursts of somewhat inco 
 herent passion, is really sufficient to demolish Benja 
 min's main point, viz., that a man would not lead an 
 army against his countrymen. 
 
 We have yet to consider Mr. Benjamin's position on 
 the basis of representation, which may sound as if it 
 ought to be a matter of no importance and capable of 
 easy adjustment, but which really brings us at once 
 face to face with the slavery question. 
 
 The distribution of slave inhabitants in Louisiana 
 was really the cause of the whole difficulty. Then as 
 now, the hilly parishes in the northern portion of the 
 state enjoyed a preponderance of white over negro 
 population. In the sugar district (which may be 
 roughly defined as lying south of Baton Eouge, ex 
 clusive of New Orleans), and in the alluvial parishes 
 in the cotton district, such as Tensas and Concor- 
 dia, the slaves were plainly in the majority. More 
 over, a very large proportion of the taxable wealth of 
 Louisiana lay in or was produced by these negro par- 
 
92 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ishes. New Orleans alone, in the southern part of the 
 state, could really claim a heavy preponderance of 
 whites over blacks and at the same time a heavy pro 
 portion of taxable wealth. When people representing 
 interests as varied as those of the parishes of De Soto, 
 Lafourche, and Orleans attempt to find a basis for 
 representation that will give fair political weight to 
 the sturdy white farmers who own no slaves, and who 
 are few in numbers and poor, with the same for the 
 wealthy planters who are also few in numbers but whose 
 slaves make so much wealth for the state, and again 
 the same for the merchants and white laborers of the 
 one great city in the state, difficulty is not far to seek. 
 
 A similar obstacle, it will be remembered, had been 
 met and overcome by the frarners of the Federal Con 
 stitution : Shall the slaves of Virginia count as much 
 as the freemen of Massachusetts ! Virginia said, yes ; 
 Massachusetts said, no. Hence the compromise : 
 " Eepresentatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
 among the several states . . . according to their 
 respective numbers, which shall be determined by add 
 ing to the whole number of free persons, including 
 those bound to service for a term of years, . . . 
 three-fifths of all other persons." Thus the " Federal 
 basis" came to be applied in those states that had to 
 deal with the problem of slave representation in their 
 legislatures. There were two other bases that might 
 be used for the computation: the "total population 
 basis," and the "qualified electors basis," the latter 
 susceptible of various slight modifications. 
 
 The committee in charge of the article involving this 
 question brought in a report (February 4th) providing 
 for the " Federal basis." Mr. Benjamin, then and when 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 93 
 
 the article again came up for discussion a month later, 
 denounced the proposition in terms more than usually 
 uncompromising and vigorous. 1 "I ask you if the 
 Federal basis of representation, as adopted in the re 
 port, is not a clear departure from the very principle 
 and essence of democratic government? For, what 
 does it propose ? It proposes taking a part of the 
 power of representation from the electors, to whom 
 alone it belongs, and conferring it on the slaves. And 
 those who raise their voices against so flagrant a prop, 
 osition are, it is insinuated, favoring the views of the 
 Abolitionists! Why, . . . it is the party who 
 make the accusation who are upholding the doctrine 
 of the Abolitionists ; they are for giving the slaves 
 political consequence, the very thing for which the 
 Abolitionists have been for years contending. I am 
 for regarding them as they are regarded by the law 
 mere property. Is it not so ? ... 
 
 " Slaves are, by our laws, nothing but property. 
 But, says the delegate from Lafourche [Mr. Beatty], 
 we should allow them to form a part of the basis of 
 representation because they are productive labor, and 
 labor should be represented. If this argument hold 
 good, then it might, with equal propriety, be urged 
 that we should allow representation to horses, oxen, 
 etc., which are attached to the glebe, and which are 
 equally productive labor. This is the first time that 
 I have ever heard the notion that labor should form a 
 part of the basis of representation, . . . and es 
 pecially that particular kind of labor. . . . 
 
 "By the principle which they [his opponents] lay 
 down, would not a man owning five minor slaves have 
 
 1 Debates, pp. 156, 360, 368-371 ; of. Picayune, Feb. 5. 
 
94 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 a representation equal to four votes, whilst a man hav 
 ing five minor children would have a representation of 
 but one vote f If property is to be represented at all, 
 why not all property 1 Why not houses and lands I 
 . . . Or if at all, why not make it a qualification 
 for voting ? ' ' 
 
 Even more distinctly, in the later speech, he states 
 that, " when in the committee, I opposed the insertion 
 of [the Federal] basis, not because I did not think New 
 Orleans would get as much by adopting that as by 
 taking any other basis that might be selected. On 
 the contrary, I think New Orleans would gain by it in 
 that respect ; but I opposed it because I thought it 
 radically wrong. ... I opposed it because I 
 thought it would operate unjustly. I regard repre 
 sentation as a correlative term ; I believe that there 
 can be no representation unless from the choice of 
 those represented ; and I am opposed to any other 
 basis than that of free white population. 77 
 
 Once later on he proposed apportionment on the 
 total population basis, which would have been just 
 two-fifths more unfair and undemocratic than the 
 Federal basis ; but this was merely a compromise offered 
 in desperation and soon abandoned. He contended 
 persistently, and with ultimate success, against the 
 Federal basis or any other basis that involved rep 
 resentation of slaves. And his statement of the case 
 against the principle involved is so perfectly simple 
 and clear, so free from the casuistry with which he 
 was accused of upholding more doubtful cases in law 
 and in politics, that one cannot forget it. 
 
 On the many minor points of Mr. Benjamin 7 s activ 
 ities in the convention of 1845 we need not pause to 
 
POLITICS AND CONSTITUTION MAKING 95 
 
 comment. In all essentials he lived up to the prom 
 ises he had made before election ; and where he 
 deviated from them, it will be found that he did so in 
 behalf of some compromise which would at least ac 
 complish part of the desired end. After a careful ex 
 amination of the press, and particularly of the opposi 
 tion press, always ready to find fault, I find no criti 
 cism of his conduct that merits the least mention. 
 And that his own party endorsed his action is suf 
 ficiently established by their continued confidence. 
 
 For six or seven years after 1845 there is little in 
 Mr. Benjamin's public career that needs comment. 
 This was the time of his plantation success and dis 
 aster, of which we have already spoken, and of the 
 renewed activity as a lawyer that was to follow planting 
 losses, of which we shall also have something to 
 say later on. He was still ready with his advice when 
 the party required it, and did not by any means cease 
 to take part in state campaigns ; but of the scores of 
 political speeches it were worse than useless to remark 
 in detail unless they express opinions of more than 
 local or temporary interest. Like nearly all Southern 
 ers, he was in favor of that war with Mexico which 
 our better judgment constrains us to condemn as in 
 defensible. He was a Presidential elector on the Whig 
 ticket in the campaign which justified the victory over 
 Mexico by the election of Taylor. And he was too 
 good a Whig and too good a Louisianian not to stand 
 by the candidate of his party and his state, though 
 his undisguised admiration for Clay and Webster 
 could not fail to make him feel that the party had 
 chosen the man who could be, rather than the man 
 who should have been, elected. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 FKOM STATE POLITICS TO THE SENATE 
 
 WHEN the Compromise of 1850, admitting Califor 
 nia as a free state, but extending the possible area of 
 slavery over the remainder of the territory taken from 
 Mexico, came before the people, Mr. Benjamin's 
 opinions 011 several points underwent a change which 
 seemed sudden, but which I venture to believe had 
 been long prepared for. 
 
 The first expression of this change of views arose 
 from his dissatisfaction with the constitution of 1845. 
 He threw himself into the movement to call a new 
 convention to remodel that constitution, which had 
 not yet been six years in operation. There were several 
 reasons for this displeasure. One that was almost 
 personal had to do with an enterprise in which he had 
 recently become much interested the Tehuantepec 
 Eailroad Company, whose formal incorporation had 
 been much interfered with by the rigid and needlessly 
 restrictive provisions of the old constitution. Of this 
 it will be more convenient to speak when we consider 
 other similar commercial enterprises in which Benja 
 min took a part. Quite aside from this personal 
 motive for dissatisfaction, neither Benjamin nor any 
 other New Orleans Whig could be content with the 
 apportionment of representatives, while the Demo 
 crats generally were dissatisfied with the whole basis 
 of representation, as not sufficiently popular. Eeason- 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 97 
 
 able men from both parties had recovered from the 
 panic that had led to the insertion of provisions se 
 riously restrictive of banking or other corporations, 
 now sorely needed to aid in developing the re 
 sources of the state. In the popular mind distrust of 
 the legislature had somewhat given place to distrust of 
 the executive ; people were no longer so much afraid 
 that their own representatives in the legislature would 
 rob them as they were that the governor, with his 
 extensive powers of appointment, would exercise al 
 most despotic control over the administration. Some 
 of our historians have remarked that, at the time of 
 the framing of the Constitution, America had a dread 
 ful bugaboo constantly in mind, George III and 
 consequently hedged the President about as if there 
 were imminent danger of his developing into a Sulla, 
 a Cromwell, or a Governor Tryon (to use an illustra 
 tion that might have occurred to them). There is still 
 a little of this feeling among us, and the result is that 
 sometimes we allow our judges to be selected for long 
 terms by the governor, and then again we have a re 
 currence of the ultra-democratic fever and leave the 
 choice of these officers to the inscrutable wisdom of 
 the ballot box. These were the sentiments that in 
 spired the calling of a constitutional convention in 
 Louisiana in 1852. 
 
 But before we tell of Mr. Benjamin's part in this 
 convention it will be necessary to mention several 
 other matters political. 
 
 Following his usual custom, Benjamin went abroad 
 in the summer of 1851. He had not returned in time 
 for the meeting of the local Whig convention in Oc 
 tober, but, along with Mr. Eobb, his associate in 
 
98 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 many large enterprises, lie was nominated for the state 
 Senate. The issues in the state were so well defined 
 that the local party platforms are quite understand 
 able even now. That one upon which Benjamin was 
 nominated, and which his friends assured the voters, 
 during his absence, he would accept, declared in favor 
 of a constitutional convention to remodel the existing 
 constitution so as to provide for an elective judiciary, 
 a well regulated system of free banks, the delegating 
 to the legislature of powers to enact liberal laws for 
 railways, manufactories, etc., and other items of less 
 note. Unfortunately, the memory of man doth run to 
 the contrary, when the length of the course is but six 
 years. Benjamin was no sooner nominated than the 
 Democratic papers, and even some that were by no 
 means Democratic, called attention to the fact that, in 
 1845, he had voted against every measure of a liberal 
 character; but "Mr. Benjamin being absent in 
 Europe, his friends, who put him in nomination, are 
 safe in making whatever professions they choose in 
 his name." l His friends did, indeed, promise in his 
 name, and their promises were made good. They also, 
 to some extent, attempted to explain Mr. Benjamin's 
 votes in 1845, and to account for the change of views 
 that must be presupposed if he could honestly stand 
 on their platform ; in this they were by no means very 
 successful, so far as convincing one's reason is con 
 cerned. They seemed to have no difficulty, however, 
 in persuading the voters that Mr. Benjamin was all 
 right, even if it did look a little queer to have him 
 supporting in the legislature of 1852 many measures 
 
 1 True Delta, Oct. 28 ; see also Orleanian, Oct. 17, Nov. 7 ; Delta 
 Oct. 9, 10, 14. 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 99 
 
 he had opposed in the convention of 1845, and he was 
 elected without serious trouble. 
 
 Scarcely had he been elected, when it became clear 
 that he was the strongest candidate for the United 
 States Senate. Two of the more influential papers of 
 his own party at first told him good-naturedly that 
 such plums were for his betters, or at least his seniors 
 in party service, though he had been a very good 
 young man. Duncan F. Kenner is preferred by one 
 paper, and Eandell Hunt by another. And one 
 journal, highly approving of his nomination for the 
 state Senate, has a comment so significant of the im 
 pression which Mr. Benjamin's boyish appearance 
 (in his fortieth year) still made on people, that I 
 cannot forbear quoting : l 
 
 i ' He is sagacious, possesses great tact, and would 
 make a very brilliant and effective senator. His 
 appearance in that body would startle the gossips at 
 Washington. His boyish figure and girlish face, 
 his gentle, innocent, ingenuous expression and manner, 
 his sweet and beautifully modulated voice, would 
 render him decidedly the most unsenatorial figure in 
 that body of gray heads and full grown men. But, 
 when he should arise in the Senate, and in the most 
 modest and graceful manner proceed to pour forth a 
 strain of the most fluent and beautifully expressed 
 ideas, of the most subtle and ingenious arguments, 
 of the most compact and admirably arranged state 
 ments, casting a flood of light over the dryest and 
 most abstruse subjects, and carrying all minds and 
 hearts with him by his resistless logic and insinuating 
 elocution, then would the old senators stretch their 
 
 1 New Orleans Delta, Got. 10, 1851. 
 
100 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 eyes and mouths with wonder, whispering to one an 
 other, l That's a devilish smart little fellow,' then 
 would all the ladies declare, i What a love of a man ! J 
 what a perfect Admirable Crichton, so beautiful, 
 yet so wise, so gentle, yet so terrible in sarcasm, so 
 soft-toned, yet so vigorous in logic ! The quid nuncs and 
 politicians would join in the general wonderment, and 
 give their decided opinion that he was a psycholog 
 ical, physiological, and intellectual phenomenon. 
 But, with all his genius, his universal talents and 
 eloquence, Mr. Benjamin will hardly be elected to 
 the Senate, because he is too valuable and necessary a 
 man in this state. He is the acknowledged leader of 
 several great enterprises, in which our state and city 
 have a greater interest than in being ably represented 
 in the United States Senate." 
 
 When the time for the election came on, however, 
 the vote for Benjamin in the caucus of his own party 
 was overwhelming. He was nominated on the second 
 ballot, receiving thirty -seven votes to Kenner's nine 
 teen, Hunt's eleven, and two scattered. And in the 
 actual election a Whig victory was certain, that party 
 having a clear majority of the General Assembly. 
 Benjamin was a popular candidate, and won some 
 Democratic votes, being elected by a majority of 
 twelve over his old antagonist of 1845, Solomon W. 
 Downs. To supporters of Hunt or Kenner, like the 
 Delta, Benjamin's easy victory over them in the 
 caucus came as a surprise. But this paper 1 probably 
 hit the true explanation : i i The country members 
 rather preferred a gentleman . . . who . . . 
 was a sugar planter, and had, therefore, a common 
 
 1 Jan. 29, 1852 ; see also Jan. 27. 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 101 
 
 interest and sympathy with them. Another great ad 
 vantage enjoyed by Mr. Benjamin was in the fact of 
 being a prominent member of the legislature. . . . 
 Mr. B. made good use of this advantage. He not 
 only rendered himself very agreeable to the members 
 of the legislature, but he manifested a zeal, industry 
 and capacity in the preparation of business for the 
 legislature, digesting and framing bills, and drawing 
 up reports, etc., which produced a most favorable 
 impression as to his great practical talent and use 
 fulness." 
 
 We might step aside here for a moment to mention 
 some of the praises bestowed upon Benjamin in the 
 little sketch of his life that follows the comment just 
 quoted. His amazing versatility, his rapid rise in 
 his profession, " though not yet forty, he has reached 
 the topmost round of the ladder of distinction as an 
 advocate and counselor in this state" and his 
 amiable, fascinating personality caused most frequent 
 remark. What a ring of a by-gone age it has, when 
 the worthy editor undertakes to account for " aston 
 ishing versatility, such as we have never seen in any 
 man we ever knew," in this fashion: "His head, 
 phrenologically speaking, is fully developed in all the 
 faculties. He has a fine imagination, an exquisite 
 taste, great power of discrimination, a keen, subtle 
 logic, excellent memory, admirable talent of analysis." 
 But the most astonishing thing in the senator-elect, 
 and here we must agree with the Delta, is that, while 
 attending to a very heavy law practice, l i he has had 
 time to look after one of the largest sugar plantations 
 in the state, to pay a yearly visit to Paris, to see to 
 the interest of the great Tehuautepec enterprise, to 
 
102 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 fulfil all of the duties of an active partisan, of a 
 public-spirited citizen, of a liberal gentleman, with a 
 taste for the elegancies, the social pleasures and refine 
 ments of life." 
 
 Mr. Benjamin's term in the Senate of the United 
 States was not to begin until March 4, 1853. In the 
 meanwhile there was more activity in political life than 
 at any time before. He did not, of course, resign 
 from the State Senate, of which he had just been 
 elected a member, and took a prominent and very eager 
 part in the actual work of the legislature during Jan 
 uary and February, 1852, making a long and successful 
 fight in behalf of the Citizens' Bank of New Orleans, 
 which brought down upon him the unsparing censure of 
 its many enemies. 
 
 Of the Citizens' Bank it is only necessary for us to 
 say here that it was a financial institution which had 
 suffered in the panic of 1839, had suspended specie 
 payments, and, failing to resume within the time pre 
 scribed by the legislature, had since been struggling 
 to protect itself from enforced liquidation under un 
 favorable conditions. Mr. Benjamin was one of those 
 who believed that the interests of all concerned in the 
 bank could best be served by permitting it once more 
 to resume control of its own affairs. 2 
 
 The Whigs, having obtained control of the legisla 
 ture, strained every nerve to win the by-elections in 
 the state, and above all to control the constitutional 
 convention which was to assemble in July. Even 
 the city election, in March, was conducted on national 
 party lines, the Whigs making a vigorous fight in 
 the face of a dangerous opposition and a split in 
 
 1 True Delta, Feb. 15, March 3, 11 ; Delta, Feb. 18. 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 103 
 
 their own ranks. In a speech at a great Whig meet 
 ing on the eve of the election (March 21st), Benjamin 
 urged his hearers to vote in favor of the proposed 
 constitutional convention and for delegates to it, and 
 to remember that in voting at this election they would 
 be helping to decide whether the next four years of 
 national administration should be Whig or Demo 
 cratic. For this excessive partisanship he was justly 
 condemned ; the only excuse which can be offered is 
 that, as in 1845, he was intent on issues of far greater 
 importance than those that lay on the surface. The 
 people were in favor of the convention, and the 
 Whigs elected at least a part of their ticket in the 
 city. 1 
 
 Delegates were to be chosen on June 14th, and 
 again the Whigs, with Benjamin and Eoselius among 
 their candidates, made a strict party fight. Not only 
 was this course deprecated, but the Delta 2 very per 
 tinently commented on the Whig ticket: "It in 
 cludes two gentlemen who were prominent members 
 of the convention of 1845, and who, in that body, 
 were conspicuous for their maintenance of those very 
 restrictions which have excited the hostility to the 
 constitution that has led to the present movement to 
 change it. Mr. Benjamin, if not the author, was the 
 ablest supporter of the bank prohibition clause ; he 
 was also in favor of restricting the suffrage ; and, 
 though foreign born himself, voted for the provision 
 requiring naturalized citizens to reside here two years 
 after acquiring citizenship before they could vote. 
 Mr. Eoselius voted for the same clause/ 7 
 
 1 Delta, March 22. 
 
 2 May 21 ; cf. May 8 and 18, and June 13 and 15. 
 
104 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 But Benjamin and Eoselius succeeded in convincing 
 the people that they had modified their views on 
 other important issues, if not on suffrage restriction, 
 and the Whig delegation was elected by a very sub 
 stantial majority. Meanwhile, before the convention 
 met, the Presidential canvass had begun, and Ben 
 jamin bore his share of the campaign work. A 
 speech which, for its courtesy and eloquence, won 
 warm praise even from his most persistent and un 
 compromising critic, the True Delta (not to be con 
 founded with the Delta) was delivered at a great rati 
 fication meeting on July 1st. Though a regular cam 
 paign speech, full of " party thunder " in places, it is 
 remarkably felicitous in expression and tactful in 
 matter. There is a touching tribute to the dead Clay, 
 the lost leader. Fillmore, he said, would have been 
 the first choice of Louisiana, and Webster, whom he 
 eulogizes in a few apt phrases, the second. But he 
 praises Scott without fulsomeness, and in the cam 
 paign that followed he did his best in the losing fight 
 for him. As the campaign progressed, in September, 
 he stumped the state for the General. As one paper 
 put it, ' " the gentle, persuasive, bird-like notes of that 
 oratorical siren, J. P. Benjamin [enchained] the wild 
 cattle that roam the prairies of Opelousas." 
 
 The constitutional convention met at Baton Rouge 
 on July 5th. Though the changes it made were in 
 many cases radical, it was not so important a body, and 
 excited less popular interest than the previous con 
 vention. In 1845 it had taken nearly five months to 
 patch up a constitution which was not so very differ 
 ent from the one it replaced ; which was full of com- 
 
 , Delta, Sept. 19 ; also 9. 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 105 
 
 promises that satisfied no one ; and which lasted but 
 seven years. In 1 852 it took less than a mouth from 
 July 5th to July 31st to enact a constitution in 
 which one can easily count twelve or fifteen changes 
 of capital importance. When such an amount of 
 work was accomplished in the time named, it is al 
 most superfluous to remark that there was little de 
 bate ; the ideal of this body was to do with certainty 
 and celerity those things upon which the majority 
 were agreed. Except for special reasons, speeches 
 were rigidly limited to half an hour. Article after 
 article of the old constitution, involving no contro 
 verted points, was adopted without change. With 
 relentless and monotonous frequency the majority 
 voted to table indefinitely amendments that might 
 excite dispute ; and Benjamin voted with, and was 
 the directing spirit of, that majority. 1 
 
 It would be tedious as well as profitless to enumerate 
 the points of difference between the constitutions, but 
 we must indicate such as are significant of a change of 
 opinion on the part of Mr. Benjamin. In 1845, he 
 who had advocated appointment, and appointment for 
 life, in the case of the judges of the supreme court 
 and other officers, now advocated, and carried through, 
 articles providing for elective judges of the supreme 
 court (term, ten years) and of district courts ; for 
 an elective superintendent of public instruction ; for 
 elective boards and commissions, etc. Similarly, he 
 voted for annual sessions of the legislature ; for in 
 creased liberality in the acquisition of citizenship ; 
 for the abolition of all restrictions, except that of be- 
 
 1 The chief source for the facts in this and following paragraphs 
 is the Journal of the Convention, which gives no debates. 
 
106 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 irig a l i free white male citizen over twenty-one years 
 of age,' 7 imposed upon members of the legislature. 
 The voter could now acquire the suffrage after one 
 year's residence, and if he were but twenty -one he 
 was as eligible to the senate as to the house. In 1845 
 the governorship seemed so precious a thing in the 
 eyes of the convention, that they provided that the 
 occupant of the office must be at least thirty-five years 
 of age, and have resided in the state at least fifteen 
 years. Mr. Benjamin, it will be remembered, then 
 wanted to make the provision still more conservative. 
 Now he voted for a provision setting the age at 
 twenty-eight, the residence at four years. 
 
 All these are striking enough by themselves to bring 
 upon Mr. Benjamin the facile and irrefutable charge 
 of inconsistency. There is something more singular 
 still, which we shall leave till we mention two or 
 three of the new clauses in the constitution. 
 
 With small difficulty, where before he had en 
 countered hopeless opposition, he got passed a clause 
 providing for the free registration of voters in New 
 Orleans population was so sparse elsewhere in the 
 state as to render such a law of little use. He had 
 learned that there could be as great folly in throttling 
 corporations as in permitting South Sea Bubbles or 
 wild-cat banks. He therefore favored liberal modi 
 fications of the existing provisions on banks and cor 
 porations, and himself was chiefly instrumental in 
 having inserted a special clause legalizing the Citizens' 
 Bank and the acts already passed in support of it. 
 After the long depression in the train of the great 
 panics that had stopped all commercial enterprise, the 
 Southern states in particular were beginning to feel a 
 
FROM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 107 
 
 revival of business prosperity, and a consequent re 
 vival of projects, often all too ambitious, for the build 
 ing of railways and other internal improvements. In 
 this current enthusiasm Benjamin shared, and so 
 united promptly and effectively with those who helped 
 to enact a whole new section (Articles 130-134) in the 
 constitution, providing for the fostering of internal 
 improvements, with an elective board to administer 
 the same. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remind any one of Mr. 
 Beuj amines opinion on the proposition to adopt the 
 Federal basis of representation. With simple logic and 
 statement of the facts so undisguised and straight 
 forward as to be overwhelmingly convincing, he had, 
 in 1845, l denounced the principle of slave representa 
 tion in any form as unjust and iniquitous. The ques 
 tion of the basis of representation was, naturally, an 
 interesting one in the new convention, one of the few, 
 in fact, which brought on warm debate. And Mr. 
 Benjamin voted and spoke in favor of basing repre 
 sentation on the total population, slaves and all. 1 
 Indeed, whether justly or not, the opposition papers 
 accuse him of being the person responsible for the 
 final adoption of that basis, of exerting his eloquence 
 to persuade and his sarcasm to drive reluctant mem 
 bers to vote for this most distasteful measure. And 
 " after adjournment, Mr. Benjamin mollifies the sub 
 jects of his sarcasm by his pleasant smile, his silvery 
 laughter, or greatest concession allows them to ex 
 cel him in a game of ten-pins ! ' ' 
 
 There was, of course, opposition in the convention, 
 though far less than one would have supposed. From 
 
 1 Journal, p. 65 ; Delta, July 27, 29, and Aug. 3. 
 
108 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the nature of the question involved, however, this op 
 position was bitter, and the denunciation in the press 
 fierce. Ten of the city delegation voted against the 
 total population basis, including Eandell Hunt and 
 E. A. Bradford, soon to become Benjamin's partner. 
 The city press generally, Whig or Democratic, dis 
 liked the provision ; some gulped, made faces, and 
 swallowed it ; some were courageous enough to de 
 nounce it. The True Delta, in particular, always dar 
 ing to the point of intolerable insolence and not over- 
 nice in its u distinction of epitaphs," returned to the 
 assault again and again. The practical eifect of the 
 provision can be very clearly appreciated when one 
 examines the census. To keep in touch w^ith the 
 opinion of the time, we may as well use the figures 
 given by the True Delta 1 with its comment. 
 
 The seven parishes of West Baton Eouge, St. 
 Charles, West Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, Concordia, 
 Tensas, and Madison (alluvial lands, chiefly produc 
 ing cotton) had a white population of 11,264, a 
 negro population of 47,373, making a total of 58,637. 
 The thirteen parishes of Livingstone, St. Helena, 
 Washington, Sabine, Jackson, Bienville, Franklin, 
 Caldwell, Union, Catahoula, Calcasieu, St. Bernard 
 and Yermillion (chiefly upland pine country) had a 
 white population of 35,681, a negro population of 
 23,819, making a total of 59,500. "By this most 
 atrocious arrangement, 11,264 residents of seven 
 parishes are clothed with as much political power as 
 35,681 residents of thirteen parishes among the most 
 prosperous of the state." This should make it clear 
 how unequal and unjust in its operation would be the 
 
 1 Aug. 8 ; also Sept. 9 and 11. 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 109 
 
 provision now sanctioned by the state constitution. 
 As I have noted elsewhere, such parishes as Concordia 
 and Tensas had an enormous preponderance of slaves, 
 who formed a minority in such parishes as Union or 
 Sabine. The slave owner was given a tremendous 
 political advantage. "The one hundred negro slaves 
 of J. P. Benjamin, of Plaquemines, are made just as 
 good as one hundred citizens." 
 
 In the abstract, one cannot defend the constitution 
 of 1852. The best that can be said for it, I think, is 
 that its makers recognized its shortcomings and pro 
 vided for a much more rapid process of amendment 
 than had prevailed. It has, however, one merit 
 which may be overlooked ; though its ends be not 
 wise, it at least has the courage to seek them by direct 
 means, and to declare itself for a principle. And 
 when we remember that this was a period of growing 
 hysteria on the slavery question ; that Louisiana, once 
 liberal in her encouragement of the enfranchisement 
 of slaves, but now frenzied by incessant Abolition 
 agitation at the North, was passing dracouic laws in 
 her black code ; that even in the convention itself 
 members not to be classed as radical in their views 
 proposed articles absolutely prohibiting any master 
 from freeing a slave unless said slave were deported 
 from the state, and absolutely prohibiting free negroes 
 from entering the state, under penalty of forfeiture of 
 their freedom, ' when we remember all this, it should 
 not be difficult for any person endowed with common 
 knowledge of and sympathy with man as he is, to 
 understand the impulses that led to the adoption of 
 that constitution, and perhaps to justify them on the 
 
 1 Journal, p. 26. 
 
110 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 principle of the inherent tendency to defend our own 
 property by any and all means. 
 
 The truth is, that there was some foundation for the 
 charge made against the Whig leaders, and particu 
 larly against Benjamin, in regard to this constitution. 
 They boasted, it was said, that the instrument would 
 guarantee Whig control in Louisiana at least for the 
 next generation. The Whigs had come to be regarded 
 as conservatives, as the party in favor of safeguarding 
 existing rights, privileges, and conditions, North as well 
 as South. A very large proportion of the wealthy 
 and prominent families of the state were Whigs, who 
 regarded the Democrats as certainly dangerous in 
 politics, and quite as certainly not fit to associate with 
 them on an equal footing in society. These people 
 were, in the main, still the largest owners of slaves. 
 And a provision which gave them representation for 
 their slaves ought, in the nature of things, to have se 
 cured their influence over the affairs of the state. 
 
 But the causes that brought about the disintegration 
 of the Whig party as a national force were quite be 
 yond the control of Louisiana politicians, and those 
 causes were already at work. The death was to be a 
 lingering one ; indeed, the exact instant of final dis 
 solution can scarce be detected : 
 
 " As virtuous men pass mildly away, 
 And whisper to their souls to go ; 
 Whilst some of their sad friends do say, 
 1 Now his breath goes,' and some say, ' No,' " 
 
 The party may be said to have been really in 
 articulo mortis when Scott met defeat in the autumn of 
 this same year. And the provisions of the Louisiana 
 
FEOM STATE POLITICS TO SENATE 111 
 
 constitution of 1852 could not consolidate the Whig 
 party in that state when the national organization was 
 destroyed. 
 
 There is no denying Benjamin's radical change of 
 front ; but though his motives may have been mis 
 taken, it would certainly be nothing but narrow 
 prejudice to condemn him without at least attempting 
 to discover those motives. The True Delta, more apt 
 in criticism than profound or just, baldly declares 1 
 that Mr. Benjamin's sole motive was a small and al 
 most selfish one. In 1845, it states, he was a lawyer 
 owning no slaves j in 1852 he was a sugar planter, and a 
 large slave-owner. The facts are not exact, and the sug 
 gestion is little short of puerile malignity. Unfor 
 tunately, with his habitual indifference to journalistic 
 censures, Mr. Benjamin, so far as I can discover, 
 vouchsafed no explanation. Under such circum 
 stances, I feel justified in suggesting one which seems 
 to me reasonable. 
 
 Unquestionably, he still held the views expressed in 
 1845, viz. , that a conflict was fast approaching between 
 slavery and Abolition, and that in preparation for this 
 conflict a well-knit Southern party must be formed. 
 He repeats this idea, we shall see, in 1855. His legal 
 training taught him to seek, if possible, a peaceful 
 solution of the problem rather than allow matters to 
 come to a crisis. Even his defeated opponents fre 
 quently bore evidence, on other occasions, to the fact 
 that he was not an unscrupulous antagonist, not a 
 partisan who would attain his own ends by trampling 
 upon others ; but that he was preeminently tactful and 
 conciliatory. His marked partisanship in this con- 
 
 1 Sept. 11. 
 
112 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 vention and in the political campaign was com 
 mented on because it was unusual. Was it not due 
 to his determination to make one final and desperate 
 effort in behalf of his chosen principles f If he could 
 gain a victory for the Whigs, and if they, as a national 
 party, should make up their minds to stand by the 
 South, certainly a critical point would have been 
 gained. He could not foresee that the great party 
 would fail so utterly to respond to the needs of the 
 hour, to change with the changing times. He himself 
 was too clear-headed, too rational to cling with des 
 peration to principles that were no longer, to use a 
 recent phrase, "live issues." Accordingly, he had 
 yielded with the majority of his party in Louisiana to 
 the popular demand for democratic or liberal meas 
 ures, though his own choice would certainly have been 
 different. He could not carry the Northern wing of 
 the party into the policies which he thought might 
 have given it a chance for continued prosperity, a new 
 lease of life. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 COMMEECIAL INTERESTS 
 
 THE year 1852 was not to pass without still further 
 political excitement for Mr. Benjamin. After the 
 election to the United States Senate, the session of 
 the legislature, the election for the convention, service 
 in that convention, the Presidential campaign, and 
 the election in November to ratify the constitution, 
 there came, to cap the climax, a determined and 
 alarming assault upon the validity of his election as sen 
 ator. As early as November 6th, one of the city papers 
 remarked : l " The friends of a certain distinguished 
 gentleman, who is known to aspire to a seat in the 
 Federal Senate, are said to speak of the probability of 
 Mr. J. P. Benjamin's being unseated. " 
 
 It is highly probable that this attempt to unseat 
 Benjamin was at least partly the natural outcome of the 
 hard feeling which was engendered by the campaign 
 of the spring and summer, and especially by his 
 somewhat ruthless partisanship. As it is an interest 
 ing example of the extremes to which party feeling 
 and trickery can go, the case is worth reviewing. 
 Even though they must have known that the attempt 
 could not succeed, the enemies of Mr. Benjamin mani 
 fested an unholy joy at the prospect of his being 
 " hoist with his own petard" the petard in this case 
 being the constitution of 1852, said to be of his manu- 
 iacture. 
 
 1 True Delta. 
 
114 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 The grounds on which Benjamin's election was 
 asserted to be illegal and void involved a very subtle 
 quibble in constitutional law. Acting under the man 
 date of the constitution of 1845, the General Assembly 
 of 1846 had passed a law relative to the election of 
 United States senators, and this law was still in force. 
 It provided that, on the first Monday following the 
 meeting of the legislature (January), in the session 
 thereof commencing in the year in which the term of 
 office of the senator or senators would expire, the two 
 houses should meet and proceed to the election. 
 
 Since the Louisiana legislature convened biennially, 
 in the even years, '46, '48, '50, '52, and as the 
 terms of senators always expire in the odd years, no 
 session of the legislature i ' commencing in the year in 
 which the term of any senator or senators" would 
 expire could ever occur, unless such session should 
 chance to be an extra or special one. Having care 
 fully provided for what, in all human probability, 
 would never happen, the law very wisely proceeded to 
 put in the one clause that was worth all the rest, pre 
 scribing that, in case a session of the legislature should 
 not occur in the same year, the election should take 
 place in " the year next preceding." Under this pro 
 vision Benjamin had been duly chosen in January, 
 1.852. 
 
 But the same legislature which elected him, and 
 which had a Whig majority, sent forth the call for 
 the constitutional convention. That convention, still 
 dominated by the Whigs, enacted a new constitution, 
 one of whose provisions was for annual sessions of the 
 legislature, meeting, as before, in January. The con 
 stitution had been ratified by the people ; it was to go 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEKESTS 115 
 
 into effect immediately, allowing only time for new 
 elections. Throughout the summer, however, and in 
 the November elections, the Whigs had been losing 
 ground, until finally, at the election for members of 
 the new legislature which was to assemble in January, 
 1853, the Democrats found themselves secure in the 
 lower house of that body. The term of Solomon W. 
 Downs, whom Benjamin had been expected to suc 
 ceed, expired on March 4, 1853. Here was a law 
 commanding that the election for senator should be 
 held in the same year in which the senatorial term 
 expired. Here was a session of the legislature and 
 a Democratic House in the same year in which one 
 of the two Democratic senators was to be replaced 
 by a Whig ? or by a Democrat ? 
 
 The temptation was far too strong for the average 
 politician. Before the legislature met, the partisan 
 press discussed the pros and cons ; when it did as 
 semble, the Democratic caucus hesitated somewhat, 
 but finally took up the matter, and decided by a vote 
 of thirty-nine to fifteen that they would bring up the 
 senatorial election, and support it as a party measure. 
 According to the program, on the 24th of January, a 
 Democratic member from New Orleans introduced a 
 joint resolution, that the House, with the assent of the 
 Senate, proceed to an election for senator to succeed 
 Downs, thus treating Benjamin's election as absolutely 
 null and void. There was a postponement of action, 
 however ; then the motion was lost ; then a motion to 
 reconsider was rushed through in a thin house by one 
 vote. Meanwhile, the Senate, still Whig, sent the 
 resolution to the Judiciary Committee, and ordered 
 five thousand copies of their adverse report printed. 
 
116 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 The disgraceful episode was closed, so far as the leg 
 islature was concerned, by an adverse vote on Feb 
 ruary 10th. But it had been a hot fight, in and out 
 of both houses. The report of the Senate Judiciary 
 Committee had been freely circulated as a Whig 
 document, and Whig members of the legislature had 
 done their best to influence public opinion in favor of 
 the validity of Benjamin's election. One of the ablest 
 of these defenses is that by T. G. Hunt, brother of 
 Kandell, in the Picayune of February 6th. And the 
 Democrats had held mass meetings in New Orleans 
 and in Baton Eouge, with the object, so said the Whig 
 press, of intimidating the General Assembly ; while the 
 Democratic or opposition press teemed with arguments, 
 so-called constitutional, against Benjamin's right to 
 his seat, and insinuations of the wildest nature regard 
 ing him personally. Thus the True Delta suggests 
 that there are some doubts whether Benjamin, although 
 he exhibited such an l i intolerant and restrictive spirit 
 in relation to adopted citizens," has himself complied 
 with all the formalities necessary to naturalization. 
 And one writer, usurping the name of "John Hamp- 
 den," filled columns in several issues of that jour 
 nal urging all the specious quasi-constitutional ar 
 guments against Benjamin, and revealing his own 
 want of faith in his argument by dark hints that the 
 senator's election was the result of deep and sinister 
 Whig designs, born of amazing prescience that the 
 party would lose in the elections of 1852, and that 
 his only chance would be in the legislature of that 
 year. 
 
 For the first time, we find John Slidell, who was a 
 brother of Thomas Slidell, and had always been a 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 117 
 
 Democrat, acting as Benjamin's friend. The fight 
 was lost in the legislature, but a forlorn hope of Dem 
 ocrats carried it still further. Some of them no doubt 
 were acting conscientiously, being really confused by 
 the speciousness of the argument advanced. But the 
 real animus of the attempt to unseat Mr. Benjamin 
 was narrow partisanship. In the United States Senate 
 Pierre Soule, on March 7th, presented a petition 
 signed by twenty members of the legislature, protest 
 ing against Benjamin's taking his seat, on the ground 
 of his having been illegally chosen, and of his being 
 a native of the Island of St. Thomas. Benjamin had 
 already been sworn in, without opposition, on March 
 4th. The petition was formally presented by Soule, 
 but to his honor be it said, he distinctly stated that 
 he would do no more than this, and it was laid on 
 the table. 1 
 
 It was not long after this that the Democratic legis 
 lature of Louisiana had the privilege of electing a 
 senator. Soule was despatched as American envoy to 
 Spain, and Benjamin's friend, John Slidell, was chosen 
 to fill the vacant place in the Senate. Though al 
 most accidental, this replacing of Soule" by Slidell 
 must be credited with not a little influence on Benja 
 min's subsequent political career. He had known 
 Slidell for years, of course, but had never been so 
 intimately associated with him. And though he was 
 a man of too much intelligence and character to be 
 dominated by another, he was unquestionably influ 
 enced by his associates, as one would expect from a 
 
 1 True Delta, Jan. 11, 13-16, 19-23, 25-29, Feb. 1, 3, 8-11, 13 
 and 16 ; Picayune, Jan. 25, Feb. 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, March 17 aud 18. 
 
118 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 disposition rather impressionable, given to enthusi 
 asms, above all, fond of being on good terms with his 
 fellows. From this time on we find the names of Ben 
 jamin and Slidell almost constantly associated in the 
 opposition press. 
 
 Mr. Slidell was a man of unquestioned ability as a 
 politician, and his personality, though neither fasci 
 nating by its urbanity, like that of Benjamin himself, 
 nor commanding respect by its fire and earnestness 
 and gentleness combined, like that of Jefferson Davis, 
 as his admirers saw him, was yet a strong one. As a 
 lawyer and as a speaker, he was much inferior ; as a 
 political tactician, he was probably superior to Mr. 
 Benjamin. His methods aroused much suspicion al 
 most always among the Whigs of his state ; and his 
 name was frequently connected with transactions that 
 induced the most bitter feeling, and brought upon him 
 the most violent denunciations. It is unfortunate 
 that in much of this Benjamin's name is put beside 
 that of Slidell ; but it is a fact that, at the same 
 time, no charges of corrupt practice are made against 
 Mr. Benjamin, and that those which are uttered 
 have no surer foundation than the partisanship of a 
 very vituperative press. 
 
 The circumstances of Mr. Benjamin's entrance into 
 the Senate, in a contested seat at a time when there was 
 still some doubt as to the political complexion of that 
 body, at first attracted pretty general attention to 
 him. His reputation as a lawyer and as a debater, 
 too, had preceded him, while it was generally known 
 that President Pierce had -offered him a seat on the 
 Supreme Court, which he declined, not only because 
 he preferred the more active life in politics but prob- 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 119 
 
 ably also because lie needed for his family more money 
 than a Supreme Court Justice received. During his 
 first two years in the Senate there is little of importance 
 sufficient to warrant extended comment. He was work 
 ing hard at the time, and no careful survey of the 
 Congressional Globe for those years is needed to con 
 vince one of his assiduity. But the presenting of pe 
 titions and local bills is a matter in which the public of 
 two generations later can hardly feel a keen interest. 
 Then, too, Benjamin was as yet acting constantly and 
 loyally with the dwindling Whig party during a Dem 
 ocratic administration, so that little opportunity of 
 fered itself for a conspicuous share in the making of 
 laws. He delivered several speeches, but none of first- 
 rate ability, though they must have been sufficient to 
 establish his reputation as a ready debater, and to 
 prepare for greater efforts. 
 
 When he went to Washington, he did not lose touch 
 with local affairs. Mrs. Benjamin, who was always 
 rather French than American in her tastes and inter 
 ests, moved to France permanently, so that there was 
 no opportunity for him to establish a home at the 
 capital. He was compelled to relinquish his hold as a 
 sugar planter, since attendance in the Senate, his 
 practice, and numerous other occupations, added to 
 the actual misfortunes of the overflow, were enough to 
 render it impossible for him to attempt to continue in 
 a business so notoriously precarious. But though thus 
 obliged to abandon one project dear to his heart, 
 there were many others, of great utility for the state, 
 to which his devotion was hardly relaxed by political 
 exigencies. The most notable of these were the Te- 
 huantepec Eailroad and the Jackson Bailroad. 
 
120 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 The dream of trans- isthmian communication, now 
 so near the most perfect realization, was never so 
 vivid, so truly oriental in its exuberance, as during the 
 middle of the century which has just closed. Then 
 the imaginations of all people, even the Mexicans, 
 were fired by ideas and predictions and statements 
 about railways which soon were proved to be utterly 
 fanciful and unwarranted. The facility of organizing 
 companies was taken as an indication of the ease with 
 which roads could be constructed. With more than 
 the impracticability and enthusiasm of Alnaschar, the 
 world dreamed of railways which it would have taken a 
 century to build ; and the bewilderment and ruin were 
 proportionately greater when the crash came. Diffi 
 cult as were the problems of construction, obtaining 
 materials and equipment, and remunerative operation, 
 in the United States, they were as nothing compared 
 to those to be solved in southern Mexico. And 
 yet men of intelligence spoke of a railway across the 
 almost unknown, unsurveyed wilds of Vera Cruz and 
 Oajaca as if they expected to make a journey on it 
 next week. It was very near the end of the century 
 before the first locomotive crawled over a line similar 
 to that of which Mr. Benjamin and his friends spoke 
 with such great confidence in 1850. For this man, 
 with all of his practical sense and his experience, was 
 often unaccountably sanguine, too ready to believe 
 what he wished very much to believe, and apt to take 
 on trust statements which he afterward discovered, 
 by personal investigation, to be quite unreliable. 
 
 It was in the fall of 1849 and the spring of 1850 that 
 the scheme of the Tehuantepec Eailroad began to take 
 definite shape as a matter in which the citizens of New 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 121 
 
 Orleans were interested. 1 But there had been eight 
 years of deferred hope before that. In 1842 (March 
 1st) Santa Anna, then nominally president and really 
 dictator of Mexico, issued a decree giving to Don 
 Jose Garay, a citizen of Mexico, the exclusive right to 
 effect inter-oceanic communication across the Isthmus 
 of Tehuautepec. The grant 2 was very generous in its 
 terms, permitting him to open a canal, or to build 
 first a carriage road and then a railway. The grantee 
 or his assigns were to have protection in all their 
 rights as well as aid in the work, and the privilege 
 of fixing tolls for fifty years on the canal or railway. 
 All vacant land, to the extent of ten leagues on both 
 sides of the proposed route, went to Garay. In 
 return, he was to agree that the canal or railway was 
 to be neutral ; that the work on the line should begin 
 within two years after the completion of the prelimi 
 nary survey ; and that any colonists introduced to peo 
 ple the land granted to him should become citizens of 
 Mexico. 
 
 Garay seems to have been what we, in the days of 
 Hooleyism, should call a " promoter," having neither 
 the means, nor perhaps the intention of undertaking 
 the work of railway building himself. But the chronic 
 disturbance in Mexican politics encouraged him to 
 make a show of beginning, in the hope, probably, of 
 obtaining further concessions. He did succeed in ac 
 complishing this object, and from time to time secured 
 extensions of the period of his grant. In December, 
 
 1 Newspapers of 1850-1852 are filled with items ; the most im 
 portant, as giving a full history of the matter, are the Delta and 
 Picayune of Aug. 9, 1851. 
 
 3 True Delta, July 31, 1851. 
 
122 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 1843, during one of the kaleidoscopic reappearances 
 of Santa Anna, the date for commencing work on 
 the Isthmus was extended from July 1, 1844, to 
 July 1, 1845, some sort of a survey having meanwhile 
 been accomplished, though so carelessly that no port 
 had been definitely selected on either side of the 
 Isthmus for the terminus of a railway that certainly 
 could not live without ports. 
 
 The approaching difficulties with the United States 
 furnished Garay with still another excuse for seeking 
 an extension of the period within which he must begin 
 actual work. In June, 1845, just before the time set 
 would have expired, he sought another extension, 
 with still further privileges. The lower house of Con 
 gress considered his appeal approvingly, and passed a 
 law, which was then sent up to the Senate. There it 
 had been favorably reported from a committee, and 
 was on the eve of being acted on, when, to quote Mr. 
 Benjamin's report, 1 " there occurred one of those 
 events unfortunately too frequent in the history of our 
 neighboring republic. The administration of Praedes 
 was attacked and subverted by Mariano de Salas, at the 
 head of an armed force." In other words, Praedes 
 had lost his hold on the " army," Salas having bought 
 enough of the l i soldiers ' ' to make himself dictator, 
 which he proceeded to do. He was something of 
 a benevolent despot, introducing various reforms, per 
 mitting liberty of the press, etc. ' He was certainly 
 benevolent toward the Tehuantepec scheme. Says 
 Mr. Benjamin again: "Whilst Salas was thus exer 
 cising, de facto, the supreme power of the government ; 
 whilst his dictatorship was thus unquestioned, his at- 
 
 1 Delta, Aug. 9, 1851. 
 
COMMEECIAL INTERESTS 123 
 
 tention was called to the law which was on the eve of 
 being passed when the Congress was dissolved j and 
 after examination of the subject, he promulgated his 
 decree of the 5th of November, 1846, which is a copy 
 of the law that had passed the Mexican House of Rep 
 resentatives and the committee of the Mexican Senate. 
 
 "By the terms of this decree, the delay of com 
 mencing the works on the Isthmus was prolonged to 
 the 5th of November, 1848. The work was actually 
 commenced prior to that date, as is established by the 
 official reports of the Mexican authorities on the 
 Isthmus." 
 
 The validity of the grant, endorsed by so many of 
 the half-dozen administrations which had in turn en 
 joyed a precarious existence since 1842, certainly 
 should have been beyond question, however prejudicial 
 it may have been to the best interests of the country ; 
 however outrageous in its disregard of public policy ; 
 however doubtful may have been the means used 
 to secure such a public franchise. Its force was still 
 further recognized, directly and indirectly, by subse 
 quent administrations. When the United States had 
 taken the edge off its keen martial appetite at the ex 
 pense of Mexico, the Polk administration sought to 
 secure what advantages it could from the vanquished 
 foe. Unfortunately, neither the direction nor the im 
 mediate application of our diplomacy was in very 
 able hands, and so, with General Scott bickering 
 with Mr. Trist, and Mr. Trist misunderstanding Mr. 
 Polk and finally patching up a treaty without any 
 very clear right to do so, we did not get quite all we 
 wanted. In regard to this Tehuantepec matter, Mr. 
 Trist had been instructed to offer fifteen millions of 
 
124 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 dollars for a right of way across the Isthmus. The 
 Mexican commissioners replied that " Mexico could 
 not treat on this subject, because she had several 
 years before made a grant to one of her own citizens, 
 who had transferred his rights, by the authorization 
 of the Mexican Government, to English subjects, of 
 whose rights Mexico could not dispose." Therefore 
 the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1847) was concluded 
 without any Tehuantepec rights for us, and with a 
 most positive recognition by Mexico of the grant to 
 Garay, and of his transfer of the same to Messrs. Man 
 ning and Mackintosh, a firm of English bankers in 
 the City of Mexico. 
 
 This was the situation of affairs when the United 
 States began to have a more direct interest in Tehuan 
 tepec. A Mr. P. A. Hargous, who was really a Penn- 
 sylvanian by birth and residence, but who had car 
 ried on much business with Mexico, purchased the 
 Tehuantepec rights, known as the Garay grant, from 
 Manning and Mackintosh. The inside history of 
 transactions with the Latin American republics is al 
 ways more interesting than the outside ; but we can 
 here catch only a glimpse of the inside, and cannot 
 be quite sure of what we really do see. However, the 
 gossip of New Orleans had it, that Mr. Hargous paid 
 only $25,000 for the Garay grant. While this sum is 
 surely a great underestimate, it is also certain that a 
 shrewd business man would not pay any very large 
 sum for privileges that first Garay and then the English 
 bankers had been six or seven years trying to dis 
 pose of. 
 
 Hargous, like Garay, had no intention of undertak 
 ing actual construction himself. He had business con- 
 
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS 125 
 
 nections and acquaintances in New Orleans. He came 
 to that city in 1850, and soon had ten or twelve of the 
 more enterprising and wealthy citizens interested in 
 Tehuantepec. Mr. Benjamin was the most conspicu 
 ous of these, the one who was almost invariably the 
 spokesman and the representative in the perplexities 
 which were to envelop the Tehuantepec Company. It 
 is customary to speak of it as the Tehuantepec Com 
 pany, though without real warrant. When those who 
 first became interested sought to obtain the coopera 
 tion of the public, and Benjamin issued a sort of mani 
 festo with glowing accounts of their hopes, their first 
 desire was to become incorporated, so that they might 
 be empowered to issue and sell stock, bonds, etc. To 
 their chagrin, they discovered that the constitution of 
 1845 was so rigid in its restrictions that no suitable 
 charter could be had without the special action of the 
 legislature. It was nearly two years before its next 
 regular session, and Mr. Benjamin, with his customary 
 enthusiasm and energy, thoroughly enlisted in favor of 
 what seemed to him a splendid project, headed a dele 
 gation to Baton Eouge to petition Governor Walker to 
 call an extra session. Not seeing wherein the expense 
 to the public would be justified, that magistrate de 
 clined to assist Mr. Benjamin and his friends in this 
 fashion. The would-be incorporators, nothing 
 daunted, formed a temporary organization, with Ben 
 jamin as Chairman, and Bernard Fallon as Secretary. 
 This company, unlike the previous purchasers of the 
 right of way across Tehuantepec, seems really to have 
 been in earnest in its desire to avail itself of the privi 
 leges acquired. Mr. Benjamin was certainly very 
 much in earnest j he rightly believed that the posses- 
 
126 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 sion of a railway, with good harbors at each end, across 
 the one hundred and sixty or seventy miles of the Isth 
 mus of Tehuantepec would revolutionize the fast-grow 
 ing traffic with California ; would give command of the 
 trade of the East ; and that New Orleans would gain 
 immensely should this communication be opened. He 
 was always ready to take advantage of an opportunity 
 to explain to his fellow citizens the peculiar bene 
 fits that New Orleans could hope for from the suc 
 cessful completion of this undertaking. In a speech 
 before the Southwestern Eailroad Convention, held in 
 that city in January, 1852, Benjamin had been de 
 scribing the prime needs of the South in the matter 
 of railways, the most important of which was the route 
 north and south to be begun by the Jackson railway. 
 He continued, " This straight line of railroad [the Jack 
 son, or what is now known as the Illinois Central] will 
 stop at New Orleans, but it will not cease there as a 
 line of travel. That line carries us straight across 
 the Gulf of Mexico to the narrow neck of land which 
 divides the Pacific from the Atlantic, whereon Nature 
 has bestowed every blessing of soil and climate, where 
 she has even lowered the hills as if purposely to point 
 out the way for a railroad ; and when we cross this 
 Isthmus, this Isthmus of Tehuantepec what have we 
 before us ? The Eastern World ! Its commerce has 
 been the bone of many a bloody contest. Its com 
 merce makes empires of the countries to which it flows, 
 and when they are deprived of it they are as empty 
 bags, useless, valueless. That commerce belongs to 
 New Orleans ! " l 
 
 Immediately after its organization, the company 
 1 Picayune, Jan. 7, 1852. 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEBESTS 127 
 
 started to take steps to secure its rights. The Mexican 
 authorities of the hour were applied to for passports 
 for a party of engineers to re-survey the route. These 
 were readily granted, and a body of men, under Major 
 Barnard, an army officer well known throughout the 
 lower Mississippi valley, proceeded to the gulf side of 
 the Isthmus, and went to work on it immediately. 
 Meanwhile, application was made to the Washington 
 administration to secure the protection of the United 
 States, and to ascertain " beyond a doubt the honest 
 intention of Mexico to forward this great enterprise," 
 before beginning actual labor. 
 
 Webster, at that time Secretary of State, under Fill- 
 more, was favorably impressed by the plans as pre 
 sented to him first by Hargous and then by Benjamin. 
 Accordingly, our Minister to Mexico, Mr. Letcher, 
 was instructed to make overtures for a treaty giving 
 joint protection to the work. The American proposals 
 were favorably received by the Mexican President and 
 his Cabinet, and a treaty was put in form by them, 
 subject to ratification by the Senates of the respective 
 countries. This provisional treaty also contained a 
 clause, slightly modifying the terms of the Garay grant, 
 to the effect that tolls were to be regulated by joint 
 control of the two governments, not by the grantees 
 alone, and to this modification, of course, the consent 
 of the grantees was to be obtained before the ratifica 
 tion. 
 
 When this draft treaty reached Washington, the 
 representatives of the Tehuantepec Company were in 
 vited to examine it, and found that, though the general 
 tenor of the document was entirely satisfactory, there 
 were certain ambiguities, to remove which they pro- 
 
128 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 posed some amendments. The treaty then went back 
 to Mexico, where it was again favorably received by 
 a brand new President and Cabinet and returned to 
 Washington with the changes desired by the Te- 
 huantepee Company. So far, all had gone as well 
 as could be wished. Both governments seemed of one 
 mind in the determination to assist in the great proj - 
 ect. And even the most suspicious of the local papers 
 sheathed their rapiers and smiled on Benjamin, while 
 they indulged in fantastic predictions of the gain to 
 New Orleans when the canal or railway should be 
 completed. The friendly journals even sent special cor 
 respondents with the Barnard surveying party, from 
 whom we find long letters from time to time. 
 
 It was in one of these letters that the public first 
 learned what the directors of the company had probably 
 known for some time ; namely, that things were not 
 safe in Mexico. The report was that the Mexican 
 Senate, after one of those violent tornadoes which so 
 frequently and unaccountably changed its political 
 complexion, had declared the Garay grant null and 
 void. The facts were, that another new President, 
 Arista, and his advisers, were hostile to the Tehuan- 
 tepec Company, and had passed a law through Congress 
 declaring the decree of Salas, November 5, 1846, ultra 
 vires and hence null and void ; indirectly, this would 
 abrogate the grant absolutely, since the delay author 
 ized by Salas was all that stood between it and forfeit 
 ure on the ground of non-compliance with its terms. 1 
 
 Almost simultaneously with this disquieting news 
 from Mexico comes the announcement that Letcher's 
 treaty has gone to Washington ; that Webster has in- 
 1 Cf. Delta, April 12, 1851. 
 
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS 129 
 
 vited the company (February 18, 1851) to inspect it ; 
 that the same has been declared satisfactory, and will 
 be at once ratified by the Senate of the United States. 
 But the Delta's u correspondent" with the Barnard 
 expedition writes from Tehuantepec * that there is no 
 doubt the Arista faction will forfeit the grant ; that 
 there is great excitement on the Isthmus ; and that, as 
 he expresses it with more force than propriety, " in 
 good time, h will be to pay." It was not long, in 
 deed, before news came of the expulsion of Barnard 
 and his party, and of the closing of those ports which 
 a friendly administration had opened to admit the sup 
 plies and materials of the company. 
 
 The tone of the New Orleans press becomes either 
 less hopeful, or altogether hostile. Losing sight of 
 the fact that Mr. Benjamin and his fellows had already 
 expended a considerable sum, out of their own 
 pockets, in promoting the survey ; that the interests 
 of New Orleans, or of any citizen of New Orleans, 
 certainly could not be injured, and might be greatly 
 advanced by the success of the scheme, the papers 
 declared the whole thing a fraud. Simply because he 
 declined to take the public into his confidence on 
 matters of business concerning the company, it is 
 hinted that, 2 " Mr. J. P. Benjamin has the good or ill 
 luck to be prominently identified with mysterious 
 projects ; ... we do not doubt that, as the agent 
 of Mr. Hargous, ... he earnestly aims to ben 
 efit his adopted city by the promotion of the Tehuan 
 tepec route ; but we complain of the movements set 
 on foot by him, inasmuch as they are unusual, strange, 
 
 1 Date March 10th, in Delta, April 12th. 
 
 2 True Delta, May 18, 1851. 
 
130 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and most suspicious." More and more hysterical 
 becomes the True Delta, till it quite earns the nick 
 name bestowed by the Courier: u U Isthmopliobe 
 le nom seul de Visthme de Tehuantepec lui 
 donne des acces de fureur et de rage." 
 
 It was vain for Benjamin to maintain a cheerfulness 
 and apparent unconcern which observers noted as 
 characteristic in a later and far graver crisis. It was 
 vain for him to refer in speeches to the probable re 
 turn of reason and common honesty in Mexico ; to 
 publish cards in the papers with encouraging reports 
 from Major Barnard ; to advertise for and buy 
 steamers ; to employ five hundred laborers, in behalf 
 of the company. Public confidence could not be ex 
 pected to revive in the face of the news from Mexico. 
 Benjamin went to Washington in July, having lin 
 gered in New Orleans just long enough to hear the 
 worst President Arista's proclamation ordering the 
 expulsion of Barnard. Webster had just left the 
 capital, so Benjamin followed to Marshfield to urge 
 his claims. The interview was full of good promise, 
 and Benjamin came back to New Orleans and pub 
 lished a long and very interesting " Address to the 
 People of the United States," setting forth the history 
 of the Garay grant up to date, and making an unan 
 swerable plea for its validity. It is from this article 
 that I have taken some of the facts in this account. 
 
 There was a lull in affairs concerning Tehuantepec 
 during the remainder of 1851, and the New Orleans 
 company by no means gave up hope. Their surveyors 
 had located a good route, had discovered a practicable 
 harbor on the Pacific, and had published this infor 
 mation in an interesting report (March, 1852). Benja- 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 131 
 
 min, presiding at a meeting of the directors on April 
 10, 1852, reported these facts, and in addition stated 
 that a responsible firm of contractors had proposed 
 to build the entire line of railway, one hundred and 
 sixty-six miles, at the rate of $40,000 per mile. He 
 had now succeeded in getting the State Department to 
 take action in the matter. Webster had written to 
 Letcher : i i Perhaps, if on a suitable occasion, you 
 were to hint . . . that the money due to Mexico 
 for the extension of the limits of our territory, pur 
 suant to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, had not yet 
 been paid in full, and that contingencies might hap 
 pen which would warrant the Government in with 
 holding it, an impression might be produced favorable 
 to the result of your negotiations. " 
 
 But this mild threat proved quite ineffective. 
 Though Mexico had protested violently and with Latin 
 heroics that she would never permit the Tehuantepec 
 Eailway to be built by foreigners, Arista and his Con 
 gress authorized a new grant to a foreigner, Colonel 
 A. G. Sloo, of New Orleans. Mr. Benjamin had 
 pretty clearly intimated in his " Address' 7 that sin 
 ister influence had been exerted against his company 
 by some foreign nation, and that the peculiar jeal 
 ousy and distrust of Americans by Mexico was re 
 sponsible for much of the difficulty. If Mexico had 
 been resentful of American encroachments, surely 
 no one could have blamed her honestly. But that 
 such was not really the case was proved by her action 
 in making the new grant, however much her politi 
 cians may have stirred up the people against one set 
 of Americans before they sold out to another. The 
 essential difference between the Sloo grant and the 
 
132 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Garay grant is that the new one proposed a payment 
 to Mexico for the privileges at once, 
 
 Benjamin kept up the fight some time longer ; but 
 it must have been evident to all now that if he had 
 bought anything in the Garay grant he had bought 
 not the right to build a railway, but, as one facetious 
 critic remarked, the right to a lawsuit. Really, the 
 only question henceforth was whether this lawsuit 
 was to lie in the courts of Mexico, or in those of the 
 United States. He carried it into the Senate, and 
 sought to have it made an international matter. 
 But the resolutions then introduced by Senator Mason 
 were even more fruitless than such measures usually 
 are. Benjamin wrote another pamphlet, showing the 
 justice of the claims of his company and urging the 
 government to act. He pictured the political condi 
 tion of Mexico, with thirty persons claiming to have 
 exercised supreme executive authority, within the last 
 thirty -six years, and during that same period five 
 forms of government intermediate between anarchy 
 and absolutism. But Webster passed away, and a 
 new and less friendly administration followed that of 
 Fillmore. A humorous incident in connection with 
 this stage of the matter is the threat by Benton's 
 Missouri Democrat. One of the provisions of the 
 Garay grant had been that colonists introduced 
 should become Mexican citizens. This did not, of 
 course, apply to the grantee or to the company. But 
 the Missouri Democrat hinted that it might be well 
 to inquire into the matter with the object of deter 
 mining whether Mr. J. P. Benjamin, "who signs 
 himself in his correspondence with Mr. "Webster as 
 4 Chairman of the Managing Committee 7 " of the Te- 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEBESTS 133 
 
 huantepec Company be really a citizen of the United 
 States or of Mexico. Mr. Benjamin did not lose his 
 seat in the Senate on the ground of his having be 
 come a Mexican, but neither did he get the United 
 States to back the claims of the isthmian enter 
 prise. 
 
 The last fight in the Senate was over the Gadsden 
 treaty. This originally contained two articles protect 
 ing claimants against Mexico, and specifically naming 
 the Garay grant. Mexico insisted on a clear state 
 ment that she did not recognize its validity, and the 
 government of the United States was to assume the 
 task of examining, before special commissioners, the 
 claims under this grant, which might be paid out of a 
 fund of five million dollars reserved from the whole sum 
 of fifteen millions provided for in the treaty. The 
 Senate, however, threw out these provisions when the 
 treaty was finally ratified. 1 
 
 This concludes, for the present at least, Mr. Benja 
 min's connection with the unfortunate Tehuantepec 
 Company. What were the actual losses of those inter 
 ested and New Orleans people furnished practically 
 all of the actual money expended it is impossible to 
 determine. Hargous made a claim for something more 
 than five million dollars ; but that was of course a 
 
 1 In addition to the contemporary press, to which references have 
 been given, interesting matter bearing npon the earlier and later 
 fortunes of Tehuantepec may be found in : Williams, Isthmus of Te 
 huantepec (1852) ; Memorial on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by the 
 Mexican Minister of Relations (1852) ; Trastour, Summary Explan 
 ation respecting the Tehuantepec Canal (1856) ; Conventions and 
 Treaties of the United States (1889) ; Stevens, Tehuantepec Railway 
 (1869); Bads, Tehuantepec Ship-Railway (1883) ; Corthell, Atlantic 
 and Pacific Ship-Railway (1886). For the revival of the project 
 under Benjamin's auspices, see Chapter VII. 
 
134 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 fantastic figure including estimated damages in the loss 
 of his valuable privilege. It is more likely that the one 
 hundred thousand dollars mentioned by Mr. Benjamin 
 in his address (published after the completion of the 
 survey) would quite cover the loss ; and a newspaper 
 gossip reports that the total was really not over 
 eighteen thousand dollars. 
 
 This undertaking brought him more harsh and un 
 generous criticism than almost anything in which he 
 was engaged. But he was not spared in connection 
 with the Jackson Eailroad, of which he was one of the 
 foremost promoters. In the midst of the exciting po 
 litical campaigns of the spring of 1852, the movement 
 for a railway to connect New Orleans with the north 
 via Jackson, Miss., took definite shape in New Orleans, 
 though more than a year before this time there had 
 been discussion of the matter. x Benjamin and Eobb 
 had spoken in favor of such a road at the Southwestern 
 Eailroad meeting in January. Benjamin spoke again 
 at a meeting on April 15th. He gave an exposition of 
 the advantages of the railway, a report of what had al 
 ready been done by a provisional committee, and 
 much technical information about the proposed route, 
 the cost of construction, etc. He advocated a tax on 
 property to aid this and the Opelousas Eoad, to be 
 voted on by the people. 2 
 
 Shortly after this meeting, the first election for di 
 rectors of the company was held. There were to be 
 
 1 Delta, April 22, 1851, Benjamin chairman of committee on in 
 corporation, rendered difficult by restrictive laws : cf. Delta. 
 April 30. 
 
 2 Picayune, January 7, 8, and April 16 ; Delta, January 7 and 15, 
 1852. 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 135 
 
 twelve from Louisiana, and six from Mississippi ; and 
 among those chosen for Louisiana were Benjamin, 
 Eobb, J. P. Harrison, John Slidell, H. S. Buckner, 
 and Emile La Sere names which are still familiar to 
 many in New Orleans. Benjamin was not only an 
 active member of the directorate, but he was chief 
 legal adviser of the company as long as his senatorial 
 duties admitted of his being in Louisiana. In spite 
 of a threatening opposition, the railroad advocates 
 carried the day, getting a fair majority on the vote for 
 the tax. And things progressed very satisfactorily in 
 the preliminary work on the road, even to the actual 
 construction, although there was more difficulty in 
 Mississippi, owing to the bad financial reputation of 
 the state and the consequent reluctance of capitalists 
 to invest in anything that bore her name. 
 
 In Louisiana, too, there was some trouble, and much 
 ill-feeling, in connection with the bonds of the com 
 pany. Bonds bearing eight per cent, interest, and 
 secured by the city tax on real estate, had been issued ; 
 but though Mr. Benjamin and other lawyers had given 
 written opinions which were favorable to the validity 
 of the charter, of the bonds, and of the tax, the 
 Supreme Court of the state had not yet pronounced 
 upon these questions. Mr. Eobb was said to have 
 bought $600,000 of these bonds at a discount of ten per 
 cent., and a certain section of the press attacked the 
 transaction as little short of dishonest, though there 
 was nothing to show that they would have com 
 manded aoiy higher price at the time in the open mar 
 ket. However that may be, the city council thought 
 it a fair opportunity to meddle in the affairs of this big 
 corporation. Accordingly, they sent a committee to 
 
136 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Benjamin to demand of the directors all the particulars 
 of the bond sale, on the ground that they, the council, 
 were guardians of the public interest in the matter. 
 Benjamin, at the time acting as chairman of the New 
 Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Eailroad Com 
 pany, replied in a little legal communication polite 
 but very firm, the plain English of which was that it 
 was none of the council's business ; that the directors 
 were required by the charter to issue periodical state 
 ments to the stockholders, and to make special reports 
 whenever a specified number of the stockholders 
 should desire it ; but that the councilmen, as council- 
 men, were not stockholders, and had no right to the 
 information they sought. Of course, this position was 
 perfectly proper ; the move of the city council was in 
 spired by political motives. l 
 
 But as Benjamin had chanced to be the representa 
 tive of the company, all the wrath of the disappointed 
 councilmen and their friends descended upon his head. 
 Now that time has hushed all these voices, it is with 
 amusement that we record the vicious remark of the 
 True Delta, that Mr. Benjamin was always ready for 
 " a nefarious blow aimed at popular rights or public 
 justice " ; and " that the same Mr. Benjamin would be 
 found equally willing and ready to give his opinion, 
 provided it were his interest to do so, to the effect that 
 his Satanic Majesty is entitled by law to exercise 
 archiepiscopal functions in this diocese, we have no 
 more doubt than we have of his connivance in the sac 
 rifice of the $600,000 of railroad bonds." 
 
 Not all of Mr. Benjamin's fellow citizens, however, 
 shared the True Delta's splenetic dislike. He was 
 
 1 True Delta, May 4, July 8, 12 and 14, 1853. 
 
COMMEECIAL INTERESTS 137 
 
 constantly in demand socially, and for those semi- 
 social public gatherings where ladies were gently in 
 ducted into political mysteries by some honey-tongued 
 orator, as well as popular meetings to express the hopes, 
 fears, indignation, of the people. Thus he had been 
 the speaker of the evening at the great annual dinner 
 of the New England Society, December 22, 1852, the 
 first at which ladies had ever been present. Mr. E. A. 
 Bradford, soon to become his partner, responded 
 to the toast of " Webster, " and Benjamin to that of 
 " Louisiana." It is unfortunate that we have only the 
 newspaper's word, 1 and our own fancy, that both 
 speeches were beautiful, " enchanting the fair au 
 ditors. " Again he had stepped aside from absorbing 
 local politics, in October, 1852, 2 to speak at a great 
 indignation meeting over the treatment of the steam 
 ship Crescent City by the Spanish authorities in Cuba. 
 The details of the incident are petty concerning an 
 individual named William Smith, whom the Span 
 iards, for the most excellent reasons, did not desire in 
 Cuba, but New Orleans was a filibustering city, and 
 there was great excitement. Of Benjamin's speech we 
 need only say that it was very remarkable for its tone 
 of moderation. In response to his query, What 
 should the people do to avenge the insult to America 
 in the treatment of the Crescent City, hundreds of 
 voices in the great throng that filled Lafayette Square 
 shouted, " Fight ! fight ! " Mr. Benjamin said that we 
 should first be sure we were right, then go ahead ; it 
 appeared that the Spanish government was ignorant 
 of the insult which had been offered by Captain Gen- 
 
 1 Picayune, Dec. 23, 1852. 
 6 True Delta, Oct. 13. 
 
138 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 eral Cafieda ; if so, l i let us make a dignified but 
 peremptory demand for reparation, and wait till that 
 is refused before we proceed to make war upon Spain." 
 
 But the crowning testimony to the esteem and good 
 will of those who were associated with him is the 
 great banquet given in his honor by members of the 
 Boston Club (November, 1853), on the eve of his de 
 parture for Washington. ' 
 
 With all the splendor of display and exquisiteness 
 of cuisine in which New Orleans delighted and for 
 which she was famous, the banquet of one hundred 
 covers was laid at the St. Charles Hotel. Mr. Brad 
 ford presided, and when the time for toasts came, he 
 opened with a little address, dwelling upon the pleasant 
 and amiable traits of character that endeared their 
 guest to them, his fellows of the club, and ending with 
 one of those gracious " sentiments" so touchingly 
 redolent of the days when gentlemen took time to be 
 gentle and to cultivate "elegance"; he said that 
 "the success of Mr. Benjamin in his public career 
 could not equal the wishes nor exceed the expectations 
 of his fellow citizens." Benjamin's reply, of which 
 again we have but a poor report, reviewed his career 
 in New Orleans, with all the happy and tender asso 
 ciations refreshed in his memory by the occasion of 
 this banquet : how he had come, a poor and friend 
 less boy, twenty-six years ago, and had met with un 
 interrupted kindness, encouragement, and confidence. 
 "In all that time he had never made a friend who 
 had been alienated, or asked a favor, public or private, 
 that had not been granted." It was no mere political 
 banquet to celebrate a victory of those there were 
 
 1 Picayune, Nov. 23. 
 
COMMEECIAL INTEEESTS 139 
 
 plenty. It was a spontaneous expression of a body of 
 gentlemen of all shades of political opinion ; and we 
 need not wonder that Mr. Benjamin was moved by 
 this unusual compliment to one who had been in 
 political campaigns so bitter as those recently con 
 ducted in Louisiana. 
 
 With this pleasant God-speed, he returned to Wash 
 ington for the short session of the Congress. As was 
 noted above, the routine work to which he chiefly de 
 voted himself is barren of interest for us. But, in the 
 Senate and out, his abilities as a debater were attract 
 ing attention. One instance will suffice, an argument 
 before the Supreme Court in the great McDonogh case, 
 Benjamin appearing for the heirs of McDonogh against 
 the cities of New Orleans and Baltimore, which had 
 been made the chief beneficiaries. As a legal argu 
 ment, it displays more subtlety than soundness, and it 
 does not now carry conviction to our judgment any 
 more than it did to that of Justice Campbell ; but the 
 reporter of the Washington Union waxes enthusiastic 
 over its eloquence and power when delivered by Ben 
 jamin. 1 
 
 He writes : " Whoever was not in the Supreme Court 
 room this morning missed hearing one of the finest 
 forensic speakers in the United States. In the case of 
 the great McDonogh estate, Mr. Senator Benjamin 
 made one of the most truly elegant and eloquent 
 speeches that it was ever my good fortune to hear. 
 His address is refined, his language pure, chaste, and 
 elegant ; his learning and reading evidently great ; his 
 power of analysis and synthesis very great ; his argu 
 ment as logical as the nature of the case will admit ; 
 
 1 Quoted in the Picayune, Feb. 2, 1854. 
 
140 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 his rhetoric so enchanting as for the time to blind his 
 hearers to the faults in his logic if any. . . . Mr. 
 Benjamin contends that substantially the devise in the 
 will is not to [the cities of New Orleans and Balti 
 more] as beneficiaries, but only as trustees for others ; 
 and you can judge of his powers as a debater when I say 
 that I think he carried conviction to most all, if not all, of 
 his hearers, at least during the time that he was speak 
 ing. So fascinating was his oratory that his hearers, 
 at least one of them, lost sight of the fact that the city 
 of New Orleans, to which the devise was made, was 
 not that spot of earth or physical entity known as 
 such city, but the community occupying that spot. 
 . . . The man who has the power to render, for 
 even a moment, such a question obscure, must be a 
 finished debater.' 7 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 
 
 FOR some years the health of W. C. Micou, with 
 whom Mr. Benjamin had associated himself since 1849, 
 was so poor as to increase his labors greatly. Benja 
 min had been accustomed to devote himself to the 
 commercial cases though occasionally engaging in 
 criminal cases leaving the jury work generally to 
 Mr. Micou. But when his health began to give 
 way, and the senior partner found more and more of 
 his time engrossed by occupations outside of his pro 
 fession, it became necessary to find another associate. 
 For a short time John Finney, just starting out in 
 practice, was connected with the firm of Benjamin and 
 Micou. Then, in the early part of 1854, notice 1 is 
 given that J. P. Benjamin, W. C. Micou, John Finney, 
 and E. A. Bradford " have formed a partnership for 
 the practice of their profession," an arrangement which 
 lasted but a very few weeks, for Mr. Micou died in 
 April, leaving the firm as it was to remain for six 
 years, Benjamin, Bradford, and Finney. Mr. Micou 
 was a man of high character and good attainments as a 
 lawyer, but not comparable to the new member. 
 
 Mr. Bradford, although of a very different type 
 from Benjamin, was a man of most unusual force and 
 intellect. As great a student as Benjamin, he was not 
 distracted from his legal investigations by the allure 
 ments of politics. More quiet and colder, lie was 
 
 1 Orescent, March 24, 1854. 
 
142 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 consequently not so good an orator ; but these very limi 
 tations preserved him from the danger of being over- 
 sanguine, made him less liable to be carried away by 
 sudden enthusiasms, or misled by the fascinating in 
 genuity of an over-subtle plea. These were the defects 
 inherent in a nature like Mr. Benjamin's, and occa 
 sionally noted even by his earnest admirers during his 
 lifetime. Mr. Bradford was not so ingenious, so fertile 
 in suggesting plausible pleas, or so subtle in elaborating 
 an argument; but he had the same power of clear 
 analysis, and those who have heard both say that 
 his presentation of the facts to a jury was better than 
 that of his brilliant partner. They worked together in 
 harmony, agreeing to differ not infrequently on politics, 
 but most devoted to each other personally, united by 
 bonds of friendship as long as Mr. Bradford lived, and 
 long after the dissolution of the firm by the great con 
 flict . After the death of Mr. Bradford, the intimacy 
 with his family endured to the end. 
 
 In connection with the land claims before the Cali 
 fornia Commissioners, Benjamin had found his knowl 
 edge of Spanish and Spanish laws invaluable. He had 
 since had frequent opportunity to perfect himself in 
 the language in connection with the Tehuantepec Com 
 pany. Already, indeed, local journals had suggested 
 his fitness for a diplomatic mission to Mexico. But it 
 was not as an ambassador that he was to find a singular 
 use for his linguistic and legal accomplishments. In 
 the autumn of 1854, the newspapers announce, mysteri 
 ously, that Mr. Benjamin has gone to the Pacific coast 
 of South America. In January, 1855, they report 
 his return "on his way to Washington, from Ecuador, 
 from which government he bears a commercial treaty 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 143 
 
 with ours, in the execution of which he has been en 
 gaged for some months." * As usual, this was only 
 half true. 
 
 The visit to Ecuador was on private business, though 
 it for a time seemed to be of sufficient magnitude to 
 interest others besides those directly concerned. Gen 
 eral Villamil, who had been a resident of New Orleans, 
 and had also been a minister from Ecuador at Washing 
 ton, had purchased some sort of claim to one or more 
 of the Galapagos Islands, which lie about five hundred 
 miles off the coast of that republic directly under 
 the imaginary line from which it takes its name. 
 General Villamil had not been able to make Charles 
 Island, the one that he claimed, in any way re 
 munerative ; nor was his title altogether clear. He 
 had tried to organize a company, and then employed 
 Mr. Benjamin as counsel and got him interested in 
 the island on his own account. Eeports were cir 
 culated of very rich deposits of guano there and 
 the lawyer was induced to believe in the repre 
 sentations made to him so far as to undertake a per 
 sonal investigation of this source of wealth untold. He 
 went to Quito, and there argued VillamiFs claim in 
 the courts a feat which would have been considered 
 more than remarkable in any one with a less romantic 
 history, and which is certainly good evidence of his 
 familiarity with the language of the country. But it 
 is only on hearsay that we can affirm that he himself 
 went to see Charles Island. As they approached the 
 island, it is said, the black mounds and heaps covering 
 its surface were hailed as deposits of guano ; on in 
 vestigation they proved to be a barren waste of gray 
 
 1 Picayune, Jan. 2, 1855. 
 
144 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and brown boulders. It was as the New York Times 
 said : Villaniil had painted glowing pictures of the 
 fertility of the island, and of the herds of cattle there, 
 but he had said nothing of the volcanoes ; " he told 
 a lot about the 'critturs,' but never a word of the 
 craters." 1 
 
 Before the public was informed of all this, however, 
 there had been wild suggestions that Benjamin had 
 in his pocket a commercial treaty with Ecuador, pro 
 tecting the guano trading rights ; that he had exceeded 
 all bounds in thus usurping diplomatic functions in 
 addition to his senatorial duties, that the United States 
 was to purchase the Galapagos Islands for three mil 
 lions ; and that somehow Benjamin had captured a fee 
 of $200,000 for conducting the " negotiations." He 
 did not buy the guano island, nor had he any thought 
 of jumping out of the Senate after some petty diplo 
 matic bait. 
 
 The condition of things at Washington was growing 
 more and more serious for all Southern Whigs. Benja 
 min continued to act with the remnants of his party in 
 1854 and the early part of 1855 ; he had evidently not 
 made up his mind what course to pursue. Yet so 
 far is he from yielding to the political excitement of 
 the moment that he delivers a lecture on " Law as 
 Practiced at Eome in the days of Cicero," at Peters 
 burg, Va. 2 For all this, one could not help seeing 
 that the great slavery question, every time it made its 
 appearance in Congress, was dividing the Northern 
 from the Southern Whigs, and that no bridge of com- 
 
 1 Delta, Jan. 7, 1855 ; of. also Jan. 3 ; Picayune, Jan. 4 and 5 ; and 
 True Delta, Jan. 6 and 7, and November 15. 
 8 True Delta, April 17 ; Picayune, April 18, 1855. 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS .145 
 
 promise could span the chasm. And, in their desperate 
 perplexity, Whig leaders in both sections of the 
 country were deserting to Democracy or to one or other 
 of the new parties. 
 
 In the North and West Abolitionists and Bepubli- 
 cans were on the increase. The two had not yet 
 coalesced never did entirely coalesce for the man 
 and the hour had not come. The Eepublicans had not 
 yet made up their minds openly to favor even the 
 gradual emancipation of slaves, much less the rash and 
 impolitic measures proposed by radical Abolitionists. 
 But the party was at least a " Free Soil 7 ' party ; i. e., 
 it desired to restrict slavery, and above all to keep it 
 from spreading into the territories now just being 
 opened in the West and Northwest. And the South 
 (not without reason, as history discovered) could not 
 distinguish Tweedledum from Tweedledee, hated and 
 feared the ' l Black Eepublican ' ' Seward, deserter 
 from the sinking Whig ship, just as much as the Abo 
 litionist Garrison. Besides these abhorred twins, so 
 very near alike, there was the Native American or 
 Know Nothing party, which had a large following in 
 certain states both North and South. Similar tenets 
 had been in vogue for a while during the early forties, 
 particularly in Louisiana ; but the revived Know 
 Nothings were far more active and ambitious than the 
 Native Americans whose doctrines Benjamin had 
 seemed to like in 1845. 
 
 In view of the approaching general election, and 
 perhaps remembering Benjamin's leanings toward 
 nativism ten years earlier, a handful of faithful old 
 Whigs in New Orleans addressed an open letter to 
 him, asking for an expression of his opinions on the 
 
146 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Know Nothing party. To this he replied l at consid 
 erable length, so that we shall have to content our 
 selves with noticing only a few significant portions. 
 
 He confesses that, " in the debate which occurred in 
 the Senate of the United States, ... on the Ne 
 braska Bill, the mortifying conviction was forced on 
 my mind that the Whig national party was no more. ' ' 
 Northern Whigs had again and again refused to stand 
 by the rights guaranteed to the South in the Constitu 
 tion and now assailed by the Abolitionists. The next 
 House would be controlled by the Free Soilers, who 
 had boasted of their determination to couple a repeal 
 of the Nebraska Law and of the Fugitive Slave Law 
 with the general appropriation bill, and thus carry 
 their point or bring the whole administration to a full 
 stop. And though this attempt would be foiled in the 
 Senate, the parties hostile to the South, call them what 
 you will, were waxing stronger, bolder, more inveter 
 ate and unscrupulous in their encouragement of 
 evasions of the Fugitive Slave Law and of Abolition 
 activities North and South. 
 
 " Suppose," he continues, "a body of insane fa 
 natics in this section of the Confederacy should avow 
 their belief in the sinfulness of subjecting the animal 
 creation to the domination and service of man, and 
 should, under the dictates of this l higher law,' act on 
 their conviction of the duty of stealing from the North 
 ern farmers the flocks and herds which form so large a 
 portion of their wealth. Suppose that to effect this 
 they should organize bands of robbers and incendiaries 
 who should make the night lurid with the flames of 
 their barns and granaries, and even threaten with the 
 
 1 Delta, August 3 and 5, 1855. 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 147 
 
 torch the roofs that protect their families. Suppose 
 that in this course of conduct they were not only ex 
 cused, but encouraged and applauded by the South, 
 and that Southern legislatures took pride in passing 
 laws for their protection and assistance, how long, 
 think you, would the North remain as patient and as 
 forbearing as the South has shown herself to be? " 
 
 Now that our country, in common with the whole 
 civilized world, is at one in the belief that slavery is 
 morally and economically wrong, it can do no harm 
 for us to try to put ourselves in a frame of mind at 
 least patient of, if not acquiescent in, such views as 
 Mr. Benjamin here voices. To him, as well as to 
 hosts of good men, there was no moral wrong in 
 slavery ; but arguments on the ethics of the question 
 are futile, barren of everything but the possibility of 
 exciting bitterness. Another line of argument, how 
 ever, should appeal to the reason and to the sense of 
 justice of all of us ; and this is the one stated by Mr. 
 Benjamin in the paragraph just quoted. Eepugnant 
 to our feeling it may be, but it was nevertheless unde 
 niably the right of the slave-holder to have as good 
 protection in the use of his property as was afforded to 
 the owners of any other species of property. It was 
 guaranteed to him by laws innumerable ; and he saw 
 in the attacks on slavery but the most unaccountable, 
 unwarrantable violation of what his whole Anglo- 
 Saxon temperament and training had taught him 
 to regard as the very foundation of social and po 
 litical liberty property rights of the individual. It 
 was no paradox to him to talk of the abolition of 
 slavery as infringing liberty ; whether or not slavery 
 was contrary to Se ward's u higher law," his slave was 
 
148 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 a very valuable piece of property, had cost him, prob 
 ably, a good round sum ; and he could no more see 
 that it was right for Northern people to plan to rob 
 him of his slave than it would be for him to connive at 
 horse stealing. Individual philanthropists here and 
 there may have been willing to emancipate their 
 slaves ; though even among the philanthropists there 
 is one well-known case which might be mentioned. A 
 gentleman made such disposal of his vast wealth that 
 it still works untold good, and liberated his slaves ; 
 but, it will be found, upon investigation, that he de 
 vised an elaborate scheme by which the negroes bought 
 their own freedom j that one of the conditions attached 
 to their freedom was that they should immediately 
 emigrate to Liberia ; and that he bought more slaves. 
 When even this Southern millionaire of most benevo 
 lent disposition did not feel that he could afford to lose 
 his slave property, would it not be extraordinary if the 
 man of moderate means, whose sole productive capital 
 was his slave property, should contemplate with calm 
 ness and patience the political success of those who 
 were planning to deprive him of what was his own ? 
 The South was not ready for emancipation ; it would 
 not have consented to it peacefully for many years. 
 Even with compensation for the actual slaves, it would 
 not have consented until economic changes had made 
 slavery as impossible as at the North ; for there were 
 many who, remembering Hayti and Jamaica, sincerely 
 and deeply dreaded the possible consequences of turn 
 ing loose these hordes of half-tamed savages. 
 
 It was to a public firmly convinced of such facts 
 slaves were property, the North was seeking to rob 
 them of this property, a policy not only cruelly dis- 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 149 
 
 honest but fraught with fearful perils for them that 
 Mr. Benjamin addressed these words. He and count 
 less other speakers were to repeat the substance of 
 them again and again, prophesying woe and wrath to 
 come, till the dread sound of war justified the prophets 
 and silenced their voices forever. 
 
 We have turned aside here to summarize conditions 
 with which most of us are probably painfully familiar, 
 but which we must keep in mind while following a 
 politician through the years just prior to the Civil 
 War. Mr. Benjamin himself summarizes them in the 
 address which is cited, but rather for his audience 
 than for one of our time. He proceeds to his con 
 sideration of the Know Nothings. Four-fifths of the 
 Whigs of Louisiana, instead of uniting " in one great 
 Southern party upon some platform similar to that of 
 Georgia, on which we can all stand together and meet 
 with firmness the coming shock, 7 ' have been seduced 
 into joining that organization. This is not a na 
 tional party ; it is objectionable because of its narrow, 
 mediaeval hostility to Catholics, and on account of its 
 puerile oaths of secrecy and the like. But above all, it 
 is not a national party because it has no platform, no 
 principles ; it is " held together not by the ties of a 
 common belief in certain principles and measures of 
 public policy, but simply by their preference of them 
 selves as the right kind of men for office holders" ; 
 and finally, it is hostile to the South. 
 
 With greater prescience than he displayed in his 
 later action, he then concludes : * t Although the Dem 
 ocratic party is not yet so thoroughly disorganized as 
 the Whig party, it requires no political sagacity to 
 perceive that it cannot maintain itself as a national 
 
150 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 party. . . . Impressed with these views of public 
 affairs, I shall hold aloof from the present state 
 canvass. I will not even join the attempt to revive 
 the organization of the Whig party. Its ashes alone 
 remain, and the Phoenix is equally a fable in political 
 as in natural history. I shall await the fast approach 
 ing time when not only Louisiana but the entire South, 
 animated by a single spirit, shall struggle for its 
 dearest rights, and in defense of that Constitution 
 which is their most precious heritage." 
 
 The battle contemplated by Mr. Benjamin, it is 
 scarcely necessary to remark, was political, under the 
 Constitution which he thought the best safeguard for 
 North and South alike. He was not of the "fire- 
 eaters ' ' who exhausted themselves in threats of war ; 
 of that it would be time to speak when he saw that 
 war was inevitable. Benjamin's great Southern party, 
 of which for a while there was some talk (Alexander 
 H. Stephens was to be its organizer), was of course 
 hopeless of formation as of power if it had been 
 formed. Such a party could not have had a majority 
 in either house of Congress. It could at best have 
 held the balance of power ; and for all questions in 
 which the South was vitally interested her represent 
 atives, whether calling themselves Democrats or 
 Know Nothings, could already be depended on to vote 
 together. 
 
 His letter was received with approval more general 
 than usual ; but some opponents pooh-poohed his ap 
 prehensions. Eandell Hunt, one of the "Whigs who 
 had apostatized to " Sammy ism," delighted a meeting 
 of his followers by a sketch of Benjamin going forth 
 to war, his short arm bared to the elbow, brandishing 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 151 
 
 a huge and gory sabre. x Others advised him not to 
 despair of the future, but to cast his lot with the 
 Democrats, and all would be well. Not many weeks, 
 indeed, were needed to convince Benjamin that his 
 Southern party was a dream, and that the one chance 
 of preserving the South from a hostile Congressional 
 majority lay in immediate and hearty cooperation 
 with the Democrats. Exactly when he arrived at the 
 determination to become a Democrat one cannot say ; 
 it was certainly as early as December, 1855 ; but he 
 did not make any public announcement of the change, 
 which was known to his friends, and manifested to 
 the public by a slight increase of cordiality on the part 
 of the administration. 8 Not till May, 1856, did he 
 find a suitable opportunity to make a public confes 
 sion of political faith. The telegraph first, and then 
 the fuller mail reports which even at that time 
 took more than a week to reach New Orleans from 
 Washington announced Benjamin's first really pow 
 erful speech in the Senate, May 2d, on the Kansas 
 bill. 3 
 
 This is not the proper place to quote an address of 
 much length ; but it is one of the two or three of so 
 much importance in Mr. Benjamin's senatorial career 
 that we must attempt to present some characteristic 
 ideas inspiring it. Of its style in general the reader 
 may judge from the extracts we can give ; throughout 
 it is what the old-fashioned critics called " chaste," 
 meaning that it is simple, very severe and restrained, 
 
 1 Delta, Aug. 16 ; True Delta, Aug. 5. 
 
 2 Picayune, Dec. 6, 13 and 23 ; True Delta, Dec. 7. 
 
 * Globe, 1855-1856, Part I, p. 1092 et seq. ; cf. True Delta, May 
 11, 1856 ; Courier, May 11, 15 and 16 ; Crescent, May 12. 
 
152 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 not at all " flowery." Its arguments are not new 
 who could hope even then to find new things to say 
 on such a question I but they are marshaled with 
 unusual skill, and illustrated with a simplicity which 
 gives them greater force. Its view of the facts of our 
 constitutional history, though contrary to that pre 
 sented in the great speech of Webster which Benja 
 min must have had in mind while framing his argu 
 ment, is incontrovertible as history, however it may be 
 doubted as sound or practicable in public policy. In 
 temper it is sometimes severe and sarcastic, for Mr. 
 Benjamin had a caustic tongue and felt deeply upon 
 the questions involved ; but it is mildness itself in 
 comparison with the bitter, savage, often coarse in 
 vectives that senators from both sections hurled at 
 each other. There could be no better remedy for 
 exaggerated veneration of men and measures of a past 
 age than a perusal of some of those disgraceful pages 
 of the Congressional Globe when partisans so violent 
 as Foote or Wade had the floor. In this speech as in 
 all others, Mr. Benjamin does not forget that he is a 
 gentleman, and that he is speaking in an august body ; 
 accordingly, he engages in a battle wherein the 
 weapons are purely intellectual, armed with the keen 
 est and most fatal of rapiers instead of a thick blud 
 geon, with which to smash his opponent. 
 
 After reviewing the history of the compromises, 
 all of which, he alleges, had failed to work satisfac 
 torily, because of the bad faith of the North, Benja 
 min said : * i The policy of seeking for some other 
 compromises than those which are contained in the 
 Constitution was a mistaken policy on the part of the 
 South. . . . She has no longer any compromises 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 153 
 
 to offer or to accept. She looks to those contained 
 in the Constitution itself. By them she will live ; 
 to them she will adhere ; and if those provisions 
 which are contained in it shall be violated to her 
 wrong, then she will calmly and resolutely with 
 draw from a compact all the obligations of which 
 she is expected scrupulously to fulfil, from all the 
 benefits of which she is ignominiously excluded." 
 
 This distinct and calm enunciation of the doctrine 
 of the right of secession was the result of careful 
 deliberation. In common with the very great ma 
 jority of the leading political students of the South, 
 Mr. Benjamin was confident of this right ; as confi 
 dent, one might venture to say, as were most of the 
 frarners of the Constitution, or "we, the people of 
 the states of Virginia, Massachusetts,' 7 etc., when 
 they voted to adopt that Constitution. That national 
 life and national government on such a principle 
 would be utterly impracticable, either did not occur 
 to them or, if so, did not distress them in the least. 
 Whether they called themselves Whigs or Democrats 
 or Know Nothings, the people of the South were, 
 and are, extremely democratic, and believe that local 
 government is better than a centralized government ; 
 they had, and have, a very wholesome dread of 
 that which we now call imperialism and paternalism. 
 And Louisiana, which had certainly never had any 
 sovereign rights to surrender to the Federal gov 
 ernment, was just as sincere in asserting state sover 
 eignty as was Texas, which had for ten whole years 
 enjoyed autonomy. Mr. Benjamin restates the prin 
 ciple in this same speech. 
 
 "What, then, is the principle that underlies that 
 
154 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 whole compact for our common government . . . ? 
 It is, sir, the equality of the free and independent 
 states which that instrument links together in a com 
 mon bond of union entire, absolute, complete, unquali 
 fied equality equality as sovereigns, equality in their 
 rights, equality in their duties. This was the spirit 
 that presided over the formation of the Constitution ; 
 this is the living spirit that breathes through every 
 line of it ; this is the object professed by it of forming 
 1 a more perfect union.' 
 
 * Great were the thoughts, and strong the minds, 
 
 Of those who framed in high debate 
 The immortal league of love that binds 
 
 Our fair, broad empire state to state.' 
 
 Take away this league of love ; convert it into a 
 bond of distrust, of suspicion, or of hate ; and the en 
 tire fabric, which is held together by that cement, will 
 crumble to the earth, and rest scattered in dishonored 
 fragments upon the ground." 
 
 If this equality be a reality, he argues, not a mere 
 dead promise of a Constitution which the North con 
 temns, should it not apply in the administration of 
 territory " acquired by treaty, purchased by the com 
 mon treasure, or conquered by the common valor of 
 the country ' 7 f And yet this territory, fit only for 
 agriculture, is to be closed to Southern settlers, by the 
 Federal power, since " almost [the] entire agricultural 
 population [of the South] consists of negro slaves, and 
 this is precisely the population which it is proposed to 
 exclude. So that we are insulted and mocked by the 
 offer to give us our portion of the common property, 
 coupled with a condition which makes it impossible 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 155 
 
 for us to use it, and which reserves it for the exclusive 
 use of the North." 
 
 Upon the vital point involved in the discussions on 
 the Kansas-Nebraska bill, viz.. Can Congress exclude 
 slavery from a Territory? Benjamin, of course, is 
 still in accord with Douglas. No ingenious Freeport 
 doctrine has yet alienated the Southern following of 
 the "Little Giant," and he and Benjamin can agree 
 that l ' Congress has no power to exclude slavery from 
 the common territory ; it cannot delegate it ; and the 
 people in the Territory cannot exercise it except at the 
 time when they form their constitution." They can 
 unite in passing a bill in which, "we said . . . 
 that we transferred to the people of that Territory the 
 entire power to control, by their own legislation, their 
 own domestic institutions, subject only to the pro 
 visions of the Constitution ; that we would not inter 
 fere with them ; that they might do as they pleased 
 on the subject ; that the Constitution alone should 
 govern." This is the comfortable doctrine of "squat 
 ter sovereignty," as the South understood it, before 
 Lincoln's simple question found and penetrated its 
 weak point, so that Southerners could no longer shelter 
 themselves beneath it. 
 
 We shall not pause over the more personal portions 
 of the speech, having but a temporary interest. Yet 
 it is but just to the South to give the other view, now 
 that nearly all histories are (blatantly in some and 
 with humility in others) accounting for the coming on 
 of the Civil War by the desperate efforts of the 
 "slave power" to maintain its ascendancy. After 
 examining the motives that might inspire those who 
 now seek to exclude the South from her share of the 
 
156 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 common territory, he determines that love of the 
 negro is bat a mask. They do not act consistently 
 with their professions of desire to ameliorate the con 
 dition of the slave. The real motive is the desire for 
 political strength : u The object is to attain such power 
 as shall put these parties in possession of sufficient 
 representation, in both branches of Congress, to change 
 the Federal Constitution, and to deprive the South of 
 that representation which is already inadequate to pro 
 tect her rights. When that shall have been done 
 when she is reduced to a feeble minority, utterly in 
 competent to move hand or foot, and bound subserv 
 iently to the will of the North, then will the last act 
 of the drama be played ; and then will the Abolition 
 sentiments which they hide now, but which they en 
 tertain in their heart of hearts, be developed to the 
 country, and ruin and desolation spread over fifteen of 
 the states of this Union.' 7 
 
 On the other side, what is the interest that invig 
 orates the determined opposition of the South? 
 " Property, safety, honor, existence itself, depend on 
 the decision of the questions which are now pending 
 in the Congress property, for $2,000,000,000 cannot 
 purchase at a low average price the slaves which now 
 belong to the people of the South, whilst no human cal 
 culation can reach the estimate of the destruction of 
 other property which would necessarily be involved in 
 any measure which should deprive us of our slaves ; 
 safety, because our population, now kept in proper 
 subjection, peaceful and laborious, would be converted 
 into an idle, reckless, criminal population, eager for 
 rapine and murder, led on to their foul purposes by 
 inflamed passions, passions inflamed by fanatical 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 157 
 
 emissaries from another portion of a common country 
 who formed a common government to cherish broth 
 erly feelings ; honor, because we should be degraded 
 from our position of free, sovereign, self-dependent 
 states, into a servile subserviency to Northern will ; ex 
 istence, aye, existence itself, because the history of 
 Hayti is written in characters so black, so dark, so 
 prominent, that we cannot be ignorant of the fate that 
 awaits us if measures similar to those which have pro. 
 duced that result there are also to be inaugurated in 
 our Southern states. " 
 
 With all of his distrust of the ultimate designs of 
 the Eepublicans, Mr. Benjamin pleads for an adjust 
 ment of existing difficulties under the Constitution 
 rather than outside of it. He was too sensible not to 
 perceive that there was a real and imminent danger in 
 the situation, despite the insulting intimation that 
 "the South couldn't be kicked out of the Union" ; 
 for he knew how earnest were his people ; and he 
 showed very convincingly, that if once established 
 as independent of the United States, the Southern 
 states would inevitably get from the northern neighbor 
 much more effective provisions for the return of 
 fugitive slaves. The United States would need ex 
 tradition treaties and commercial advantages, for 
 which the new power could drive a bargain to suit her 
 self. But he also knew two other things that too rarely 
 came into the calculations of the fire-eaters. The first 
 was that the South was not l i equal in population or 
 military strength with the North." The second was 
 that there could be no peaceable dissolution of the 
 Union, whatever one might believe about the theoret 
 ical right of withdrawing from the "Federal com- 
 
158 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 pact. ' ' The people of the South, he said, < i appeal to 
 the guarantees of the Constitution, and when those 
 guarantees shall fail, and not till then, will the in 
 jured, outraged South throw her sword into the scale 
 of her rights, and appeal to the God of battles to do 
 her justice. I say her sword, because I am not one 
 of those who believe in the possibility of a peaceful 
 disruption of the Union. It cannot come until every 
 possible means of conciliation has been exhausted ; 
 it cannot come until every angry passion shall have 
 been roused ; it cannot come until brotherly feeling 
 shall have been converted into deadly hate ; and then, 
 sir, with feelings embittered by the consciousness of 
 injustice, or passions high wrought and inflamed, 
 dreadful will be the internecine war that must ensue. ' ' 
 At the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Benjamin re 
 viewed the political conditions, somewhat as he had 
 done in the letter of 1855, but more in detail how 
 there were nineteen Whig senators when he took his 
 seat in 1853 ; how this minority had been rent into 
 ' ' fragments that no mortal skill could ever re-unite, 
 for the cement of a common principle is wanting ' ' ; 
 how that spurious and illusive party called Know 
 Nothing had risen, and had already displayed senti 
 ments inimical to the South ; how, finally, in this per 
 plexity he had sought the only rational solution in join 
 ing the Democratic party. It was the natural and in 
 evitable conclusion to be reached by a practical man. 
 And it was less narrow and less dangerous than the 
 formation of any new sectional party. This was the 
 only chance of staving off for four years that conflict 
 which Benjamin already deemed almost inevitable, 
 but from which he shrank as long as shrinking could 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 159 
 
 not be construed into disloyalty to the people whose 
 interests he represented. 
 
 Though Mr. Benjamin's conversion to Democracy 
 if it could be called a conversion when he still openly 
 worshiped the place where the Whig gods had stood, 
 and as openly said he was a Democrat only because 
 there were no more Whigs had been anticipated, it 
 nevertheless called forth much comment. i i There 
 was much rejoicing," says the True Delta, " over the 
 repentant sinner in the United States Senate; and 
 General Cass did not disdain to welcome the Louisiana 
 senator into the ranks of a party he had for so many 
 years lustily opposed." The more friendly papers 
 remarked the earnestness, animation, and powerful 
 effect with which he spoke ; and only a few representing 
 the forlorn hope of obstinate Whigs, indulged in criti 
 cism whose acerbity was a test of their sense of the loss 
 sustained by the great party. 
 
 True to his promise, Benjamin went into the cam 
 paign of 1856 with great vigor. He spoke first ' in 
 New Orleans at a tremendous meeting held in Odd 
 Fellows' Hall, September 23d ; and then on several 
 other occasions in the city. Moreover, he subjected 
 himself to the great fatigue and discomfort of a tour 
 through the state and appeared in a score or more of 
 the towns. The speech at Odd Fellows' Hall was the 
 finest effort, for it had to be a justification of his 
 change of party before a critical audience and in a 
 city then too often terrorized by the violence of the 
 Know Nothings. His arguments we need not con 
 sider ; they cover the same ground as before ; but, 
 strange as it may seem, this address was a revelation 
 
 1 Delta, True Delta, and Courier, Sept. 24. 
 
160 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 to some of his fellow citizens who had never heard 
 Benjamin on a political topic that called for the exer 
 cise of his full powers. The hall was crowded to the 
 doors, and many stood in adjoining rooms, hoping 
 to hear where they could not see. And even the 
 atrabiliar True Delta is amazed and lulled into sullen 
 submission by his admitted eloquence, while the Delta 
 cannot restrain its admiration of the orator, though 
 somewhat critical of the policy he advocated : i i We 
 were proud of him as a Southern man, proud of his fine 
 capacity, energy, and pluck. . . . Mr. Benjamin 
 is usually a quiet and conversational speaker, gifted 
 with those peculiar graces which render the eloquence 
 of the bar almost an eloquence per se ; and we always 
 considered that he possessed the analytic capacity and 
 firm qualities of an Erskine rather than the vivid and 
 impetuous inspiration of a Sheridan. But we were 
 undeceived last night. The calm logician can become 
 the effective rhetorician when he pleases, and the 
 Hyperides of the Louisiana bar to our amazement and 
 delight suddenly grew into the proportions of a Demos 
 thenes, and swept the hearts of his audience as a 
 minstrel might smite the chords of a harp. . . . 
 Mr. Benjamin . . . possesses enough of the mens 
 divinior to irradiate and beautify his ponderous knowl 
 edge j and the man who is unequaled in the Supreme 
 Court at Washington need entertain very little fear of 
 rivalry on the stump in Louisiana. 7 ' 
 
 In the roar of the tumult that came four years later, 
 we are apt to forget how bitter was the campaign of 
 1856, how very near our ship of state steered to the 
 breakers. Failure to elect Buchanan then would have 
 been the signal for disruption of the Union almost as 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 161 
 
 certainly as was the failure to elect Douglas in 1860. 
 Though plenteously besprinkled with the choicest 
 epithets of loathing by Whigs who had chosen the 
 Democratic party, Fillmore, who had allowed himself 
 to be seduced by the Know Nothings, was probably 
 the unconscious instrument of salvation. His can 
 didacy was more harmful to Fremont than to Bu 
 chanan. The result is a matter of history ; but it 
 was only by a narrow margin that the Democrat was 
 chosen, while the campaign brought out sharp divisions 
 between men who had formerly acted in the same 
 party and who were all too soon to face each other in a 
 sterner contest. With all of this it has struck the 
 writer as very remarkable that, throughout the can 
 vass, Mr. Benjamin for once escapes hostile criticism 
 except of the most dignified kind. The Know Noth 
 ings tried to break up the Odd Fellows' Hall meeting, 
 and hustled the audience as it dispersed ; but none of 
 the scurrility which had not infrequently marked 
 references to Mr. Benjamin appears now. Elected as 
 a Whig, he had in the midst of his term become a 
 Democrat and retained his seat : he was certainly 
 peculiarly vulnerable. But his motives seem to have 
 been so obvious and so universally approved that there 
 were few to find fault. 
 
 After the battle was won, however, and the South 
 breathed once more, bitterness again tinged many of 
 the references to him in the local press. His success 
 irked the envious ; but above all, he could not be for 
 given for being in the good graces of Mr. Slidell, 
 and practically assured of succeeding himself in the 
 Senate. 
 
 At Washington Benjamin was a frequent speaker, 
 
162 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and particularly ready to stand to his guns whenever 
 the South needed defense. After the great Kansas 
 speech of 1856, his reputation was as firmly estab 
 lished there as at home. And since that state, 
 with her rival constitutions, occupied the attention of 
 the whole Union throughout these troublous years, it 
 is not surprising to find Benjamin making it the 
 theme of another notable speech on March 11, 1858. l 
 It is ostensibly a plea for the admission of Kansas 
 under the Lecompton Constitution, a document which 
 we now know to have been distinctly misrepresenta- 
 tive of popular sentiment in Kansas, proved to be 
 a fraud soon afterward, and hopelessly lost. The 
 law of nature, as so many have remarked, forbade 
 slavery in Kansas ; and only blind partisanship could 
 defend the attempt to force this constitution upon the 
 people. It is surprising to find a man usually fair- 
 minded and not given to narrow sectionalism defend 
 ing the course pursued by the pro-slavery party in 
 Kansas and by the administration. And the only ex 
 cuse we can make, a poor one, is resolute loyalty to 
 what was considered the need of the South, through 
 thick and thin. 
 
 But though we cannot approve the advocacy of 
 the Lecompton Constitution, this speech is another 
 admirable statement of Southern views on slavery, 
 and contains many eloquent passages. Benjamin took 
 occasion to review the status of slavery under the 
 English common law ; indeed, three-fourths of the 
 speech is on that topic, not on Kansas at all, whose 
 Lecompton Constitution gets but scant notice near the 
 close. It will be sufficient here to quote his prelim- 
 
 1 Globe, 1857-1858, Part II., p. 1065 et. seq. 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 163 
 
 inary statement of the points he proposes to establish, 
 in order to show the character of the argument : 
 
 "Mr. President, the thirteen colonies, which, on 
 the 4th of July, 1776, asserted their independence, 
 were British colonies, governed by British laws. Our 
 ancestors in their emigration to this country brought 
 with them the common law of England as their birth 
 right. . . . If I can show . . . that the na 
 tion thus exercising sovereign power over these thir 
 teen colonies did establish slavery in them, did main 
 tain and protect the institution, did originate and 
 carry on the slave-trade, did support and foster that 
 trade; that it forbade the colonies permission either 
 to emancipate or export their slaves ; that it prohib 
 ited them from inaugurating any legislation in dimi 
 nution or discouragement of the institution, nay, 
 sir, more, if at the date of our Revolution I can show 
 that African slavery existed in England as it did on 
 this continent, if I can show that slaves were sold 
 upon the slave mart, in the Exchange and other public 
 places of resort in the city of London as they were 
 on this continent, then I shall not hazard too much in 
 the assertion that slavery was the common law of the 
 thirteen states of the Confederacy at the time they 
 burst the bonds that united them to the mother 
 country. 77 
 
 He has little difficulty in presenting a strong argu 
 ment to establish all but the fact of real existence of 
 slavery in England after Mansfield's famous decision 
 of 1771 (Sommersett case), and the selling of slaves in 
 that country. The latter was undoubtedly common 
 enough in one way the sale of colonial property, 
 including slaves, the slaves held in the colonies, but 
 
164 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the actual sale taking place in England. He then 
 proceeds to demolish the rather flimsy arguments of 
 Fessenden, Collainer, and Seward, that the Constitu 
 tion does not recognize slaves as property, to be .held 
 and protected as securely as any other species of 
 property. In reply to Collamer' s argument, that 
 because a peculiar provision was made for slave prop 
 erty, the framers of the Constitution did not regard it 
 as other property, but as a thing that needed some 
 provision other property did not need, he makes 
 use of an illustration that has been quoted as one of 
 the few passages of pure ornament in his usually 
 very businesslike speeches : l i There are numerous 
 illustrations upon this point [viz., that where no 
 remedy is granted by the law of a state, a man can 
 not have title to his property, though his equitable 
 right may be unquestioned] illustrations furnished by 
 the copyright laws, illustrations furnished by the 
 patent laws. Let us take a case, one that appeals to 
 us all. There lives now a man in England who from 
 time to time sings to the enchanted ear of the civi 
 lized world strains of such melody that the charmed 
 senses seem to abandon the grosser regions of earth, 
 and to rise to purer and serener regions above. God 
 has created that man a poet. His inspiration is 
 his ; his songs are his by right divine ; they are his 
 property, so recognized by human law ; yet here in 
 these United States men steal Tennyson's works and 
 sell his property for their profit; and this because^ 
 in spite of the violated conscience of the nation, we 
 refuse to grant him protection for his property. 7 ' 
 
 Though Louisiana could not but be proud of the elo 
 quence of her senator, attracting national attention, 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 165 
 
 there were many factions at home already scheming to 
 prevent his reelection on the approaching expiration 
 of his term. The True Delta l hails with delight a 
 report that Slidell is " setting the traps" to elect 
 Eepresentative J. M. Sandidge as his successor, 
 11 either on the expiration of Colonel Benjamin's term 
 of office, or on the appointment of this gentleman to 
 a special mission to Mexico, of which there is some 
 talk.' 7 The military title with which Benjamin is 
 here dignified is meant as a mark of the editor's su- 
 preme contempt, and is as fantastic as the mission to 
 Mexico. As the time for the election draws nearer, 
 the same paper reports that Slidell is scheming for the 
 Presidential nomination, and to that end seeks for 
 "Belniont the mission to Madrid, and for his col 
 league, Senator Benjamin, that to Mexico or France, 
 the latter being, it is said, anxious to obtain the 
 greater distinction in order to be near his family, 
 who reside in the French capital. Both gentlemen 
 are of the Hebrew faith, as is, I believe, Senator 
 Slidell himself." But no hope remained of shunting 
 Benjamin off on a diplomatic track. Several inde 
 pendent candidates for the senatorship were men 
 tioned, and the True Delta exclaimed, that if such a 
 candidate could not be chosen, " then, in God's name, 
 let Slidell himself be chosen, for he may just as well 
 have two votes in his own person as to be able, on 
 every occasion, to command the servile accompani 
 ment of his facile coadjutor." 
 
 The opposition to Benjamin seemed very formidable, 
 and his political record was jealously scrutinized to 
 discover vulnerable spots. The public was not al- 
 
 1 April 30, 1857; also Feb. 2, 1858. 
 
166 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 lowed to lose sight of the fact that he was a Jew and 
 a foreigner. But this was manifestly insufficient to 
 prejudice the party against so useful a leader. The 
 main reliance of the opposition was placed upon his 
 connection with the Houmas land claims ; yet that 
 too, though assiduously worked, proved no more 
 damaging to Benjamin than to the principal rival for 
 the senatorship, J. M. Sandidge, who had done quite 
 as much in connection with the Houmas land bill in 
 the House as Benjamin had in the Senate. The Con 
 gressional investigation of the case was not com 
 pleted till 1860, but as its bearing on this part of 
 Benjamin's career is most important, we shall antici 
 pate so far as to present a resume of it here. 
 
 It is almost impossible to discover the whole truth 
 about the Houmas lands, so much were the facts dis 
 torted by political passions. Thus it was asserted 
 even by newspapers which are counted conservative 
 to-day, such as the New York Times, 1 that Slidell's 
 holdings in these lands amounted to over a half million 
 dollars, and that Benjamin had received ten thousand 
 for getting the bill through Congress. Certain of 
 the facts in the case, however, can be established 
 with sufficient ease to cast discredit on these charges. 
 The lands in question lay on the east bank of the Miss 
 issippi Eiver, in the parishes of Iberviile and Ascen 
 sion, a plantation there still bears that name and 
 had been purchased originally from the Houmas 
 Indians in 1774 by Conway and Latil, with the sanc 
 tion of the Spanish authorities. The original grant, 
 which was added to, ran back from the river front the 
 usual depth of forty arpents. Land was cheap in 
 
 1 March 24, 1859, quoted by True Delta, March 29. 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 167 
 
 Louisiana in those days ; in fact, Spain was only too 
 glad to entice colonists into its swamps by grants of 
 the most magnificent extent and vaguest limits. 
 Hence when Conway, in 1776, told the Spanish gov 
 ernor that there was no timber on his tract, or for two- 
 score arpents back of it, and that he needed timber 
 for plantation purposes, the Spanish surveyor went 
 upon the land, marked out the side lines of the orig 
 inal forty arpents, and two arpents further to give the 
 direction. That was the all but universal method of 
 surveying. The neighboring proprietors were wit 
 nesses, and signed the surveyor's report of this pro 
 ceeding. The governor granted the land, and Spanish 
 and French authorities found no fault with the trans 
 action, which was indeed not unusual ; nor did it 
 seem to occur to them that there might ever come a 
 day when people would wish to know how far back 
 the new grant ran. Conway had asked for " all of the 
 lands back" of his first claim, and such presumably 
 was the intention of the Spanish governor. But did 
 this, as was quite commonly understood in such grants, 
 mean that those side lines, which the surveyor had 
 run out only for two additional arpents " to give the 
 direction," should continue to run until they met the 
 next natural boundary, in this case a water course ? 
 If this were so, then these lines would be twenty miles 
 or more in length. 
 
 The back lands, however, were of no special value 
 for half a century after the date of the grant. The 
 claim of the original parties had, of course, passed 
 into various hands. And as no particular attention 
 was paid to the lands, squatters settled unmolested on 
 certain portions of them. Meanwhile the United 
 
168 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 States had tacitly acknowledged the validity of the 
 title soon after the acquisition of Louisiana, but 
 Congress had declined to pass a specific act on the 
 subject. Then an agent of the Land Office, acting 
 hastily, sold some of the lands to squatters and set 
 tlers (1835), and there were more complications, since 
 some of these purchasers gave up their interests when 
 the title was questioned, while others held on. At 
 length efforts were made to have Congress quiet the 
 titles of those who represented the original grantees, 
 of whom Senator Slidell was one his holdings under 
 the claim amounting to about eight thousand acres, 
 assessed at $15,000. A bill for that purpose was in 
 troduced in the second session of the Thirty -fourth 
 Congress, but not acted on for lack of time. The same 
 bill, favorably reported by the Committee on Private 
 Land Claims, of which Benjamin was chairman, passed 
 the first session of the next Congress, as one section 
 in a bill to settle certain private land claims in Mis 
 souri and elsewhere. 
 
 This measure did not give absolute title to the 
 Houmas claimants as against the other settlers on the 
 laud, but provided that suit should be instituted 
 within two years by all who questioned the rights of 
 the grantees, and that in case of failure to show a 
 better title, the area in litigation should be held as 
 rightfully the property of the latter or their present 
 representatives. As soon as the fact of the passage 
 of this bill became known in Louisiana there was great 
 excitement among the many persons whose lands lay 
 in what was known to be included in the Houmas 
 district. Mass meetings were held, and the rising 
 flame was fanned by the many enemies of Slidell. Pro- 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 169 
 
 tests were sent to Washington, and Benjamin himself, 
 in the closing weeks of Congress, introduced a joint 
 resolution to suspend the action of the law till the end 
 of the succeeding session, since the time was too short 
 for proper investigation immediately. On January 4, 
 1860, Robert Tooinbs presented another petition against 
 the law, and after some discussion, the whole matter of 
 the Houmas lands and the law of June 2, 1858, was, on 
 Benjamin's suggestion, referred to a special committee 
 for thorough investigation. On May 29, 1860, the re 
 port of this committee, of which Toombs was chair 
 man, was taken up and debated, then and later, at 
 great length. 
 
 The findings was adverse to the Houmas grantees, 
 and Toombs and Benjamin, in particular, waxed warm 
 in Congress over the matter. Benjamin's speech was 
 remarkably subtle, but for once he seems to have been 
 seeking to defend a doubtful position, and one in 
 whose defense he might lose much, and could gain 
 nothing. For Toombs' s report had recommended but 
 one change of any consequence in the law as it stood, 
 and the concession of that point by Benjamin would 
 have saved him from unjust suspicions without preju 
 dice to public policy or to any bona fide rights of in 
 dividuals. This change was to the effect that the 
 Houmas grantees as well as all other parties whose 
 titles were in doubt, should begin suit against the gov 
 ernment for recovery of the land, within two years, 
 and that on failure to establish the title it should 
 revert to the government. But, a little vain of his 
 familiarity with Spanish and French law, thoroughly 
 convinced from his own investigations that the Houmas 
 grants were valid (in 1840 he had been employed in an 
 
170 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 important case involving the examination of this title), 1 
 and angered by the foolish accusations against him and 
 by Toonibs's tactless and somewhat bullying manner, 
 Benjamin fought to the bitter end. In spite of all his 
 ingenuity and eloquence, the report was accepted, and 
 the amendment proposed by the blunt and rather reck 
 less Georgian was passed. 
 
 Those who were in Washington with Benjamin at 
 the time knew that his connection with the Houmas 
 affair had been in no way dishonorable, although most 
 unfortunate and perhaps unwise. Men of the stamp 
 of the Bayards, of Davis, of L. Q. C. Lamar, and of 
 Mason, knew Benjamin, and their regard for him was 
 not disturbed by the charges of corruption made by the 
 press, delighted to have so easy a theme. But this 
 same press spread the reports among those who did 
 not know and could not discover the truth, who took 
 insinuations for proved facts, and who held up their 
 hands in horror. The echoes of the Houmas scandal 
 followed Benjamin almost all the way through his sub 
 sequent career in America j and Mr. Slidell was never 
 referred to by the New Orleans True Delta otherwise 
 than as " Houmas John." 2 
 
 When the Louisiana legislature met in January, 1859, 
 more or less garbled accounts of these facts had run the 
 rounds of the press. It is probable that private sources 
 of information, nevertheless, enabled the members to 
 form a fairly just judgment. When the Democratic 
 caucus met, it had a stormy time deciding on a candi- 
 
 1 Moore vs. Hampton, 3 La. Annual Rep., p. 192. 
 
 2 For the full record of the affair, see the Congressional Glole, 
 1859-1860, Part I, pp. 323, 324; Part III, p. 2423, etseq.; p. 2588, 
 etxeq.; p. 2674. Cf. Delta, Apr. 13, 1859; True Delta, Apr. 3,4, 
 and 11, and June 9, 1860. 
 
CHANGE IN POLITICAL VIEWS 171 
 
 date. In a full meeting, thirty-six votes were needed 
 to establish the choice. After sitting all day, cast 
 ing forty fruitless ballots, the caucus adjourned at 
 six o'clock to meet again at seven. On their reas 
 sembling, the struggle was resumed ; and on the forty- 
 second ballot the vote stood: Benjamin, 25; Sandidge, 
 23 ; Gray, 19 ; Parham, 1. The members then ad 
 journed till next morning at ten o'clock, when, after 
 more hopeless voting till three, they agreed to take one 
 more ballot, and in the event of failure to secure a can 
 didate on whom they could unite, to cease balloting in 
 caucus. This vote gave thirty-five for Saudidge, just 
 one short of the requisite number. With supreme 
 daring, the Benjamin men had cast most of their votes 
 for Sandidge, presumably to convince the latter' s 
 friends that there was no hope for them in any event. 
 Then the Benjamin faction proposed to continue the 
 voting, in spite of the agreement just reached, to which 
 the other factions refused to consent, and left the cau 
 cus. Assembling again at six o'clock with their frag 
 ment of a party, fifty members being present, Benja 
 min's supporters elected their man on the first ballot, 
 the vote standing twenty-six for Benjamin, twenty-three 
 for Sandidge, and one scattering. Benjamin was de 
 clared the nominee of the party ; but the outlook was 
 not very cheering, since fifty-seven votes were requisite 
 for election in the legislature, and he had so far 
 shown nothing like that strength. To the consterna 
 tion of the opposition, when the first vote was taken in 
 the Assembly, it gave Benjamin fifty-seven, Gray fifty, 
 and Eandell Hunt, the Know Nothing candidate, five. 
 Said the True Delta: " George Wooley was the only 
 Know Nothing from the city of New Orleans who voted 
 
172 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 for Benjamin, and when the vote was given, it aston 
 ished and embittered against him all his colleagues 
 from the city. This vote was the last Know Nothing 
 vote given, and elected Benjamin. The friends of 
 Sandidge all went home with long faces, most of them 
 swearing that north Louisiana should have the senator 
 to be elected two years hence. ' ' And 1 1 two years 
 hence " there were no more senators of the United States 
 to be elected from Louisiana. The Picayune describes 
 this as " the most excited contest " for senator ever held 
 in the state ; while the Delta, now favorable to Ben 
 jamin, remarks : " Without designing to be invidious, 
 we cannot refrain from congratulating the people of 
 this state at the result. ... As a profound law 
 yer, Mr. Benjamin has stood for years at the head of a 
 bar that has no superior in the Union ; as an orator, 
 his reputation is as wide as the country itself, while 
 as a man his life has been singularly pure. His popu 
 larity is best proved by the fact that among all the vari 
 ous offices to which he has aspired commencing in the 
 House of Eepresentatives of this state, passing through 
 the Senate and constitutional convention, until he at 
 tained his present high station we believe he has 
 never once known defeat." Still, this last election 
 was won by the narrowest margin. 1 
 
 1 The press teems with items of this contest ; the best accounts 
 are in the True Delta, Jan. 15, 23, 25, and 26, 1859, and the Delta 
 and the Picayune, Jan. 26. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 
 
 THE perilous contest for reelection in Louisiana had 
 not been allowed to distract Benjamin's attention from 
 his duties in the Senate, where his skill as a debater 
 and his attractive personality were steadily increasing 
 his power. Fond of social amusements, much given 
 to playing cards, though not a rabid gambler, he was 
 a general favorite, and had many friends among the 
 very best set in Washington ; but his principle, in 
 friendships, seemed to be " entangling alliances with 
 none. ' ' As the storm of the presidential election ap 
 proached, party and sectional lines were drawn closer, 
 and men found themselves attracted to or repelled from 
 persons about whom they had felt very differently here 
 tofore. Some few Southerners continued to the last 
 nay, even afterward, on friendly terms with Northern 
 colleagues whose politics they must fight relentlessly. 
 Though there was often courtesy still there could 
 be little intimacy ; for to both parties, if for very 
 different reasons, the Ohio seemed a Phlegethon. But 
 Benjamin was remarkable all through life for having 
 no close friends. He was personally so affable and 
 uniformly courteous that he rarely offended even vio 
 lent partisans on the other side, and had most friendly 
 relations with nearly everybody ; but scarcely one of 
 the senators, North or South, could claim to be really 
 intimate with him. Perhaps he was nearer this relation 
 with the Bayards than with any other family. There 
 
174 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 is hardly a more remarkable instance in our history 
 than that of successive generations of Bayards holding 
 the best of Delaware's national offices, and always 
 with the highest credit, for almost a century. At this 
 particular time James A. Bayard was senator from 
 Delaware, a staunch and honorable champion of what 
 he held to be the constitutional rights of the states, 
 rights now endangered by the spread of Bepublican- 
 ism. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Benjamin's 
 eloquence ; and association in the Senate soon brought 
 about the most pleasant relations with the family. 
 
 The next Bayard, Thomas F., later our Minister to 
 England, gives some interesting reminiscences : * "I 
 first saw Mr. Benjamin about 1856, at Washington, 
 where he was a senator of the United States from the 
 state of Louisiana, and most successfully conducting a 
 leading practice in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. I was on a visit to my father, and at his house 
 I met Mr. Benjamin, who, together with other leading 
 members of the Senate, including Pearce and Pratt of 
 Maryland, Hunter and Mason of Virginia, Bingham 
 of North Carolina, Butler of South Carolina, Mallory 
 of Florida, etc., was a frequent guest. Benjamin's 
 personal appearance was not at all impressive, short, 
 fat, and 'pudgy' in figure, with few or none of the 
 features which physiology or phrenology teach us to 
 expect in individuals possessed of strong moral and 
 intellectual characters ; and then a half smile about 
 his mouth, that sometimes seemed to degenerate into 
 a simper, did not increase confidence. His manner, 
 however, was most attractive, gentle, sympathetic, 
 and absolutely unaffected, and this restored confidence ; 
 
 1 MS. notes copied by Mrs. Hilles ; also the letters cited below. 
 
IK AND OUT OF THE SENATE 175 
 
 for he was endowed with a voice of singular musical 
 timbre, high pitched, but articulate, resonant, and 
 sweet. He excelled in conversation, with an easy flow 
 of diction, embellished by a singular mastery of lan 
 guages at the base of which lay the Latin and its fibres 
 of the French and Spanish. All this gave grace and 
 breadth to his conversation, enriched by anecdote and 
 playful humor and gentle philosophy. He certainly 
 shone in social life as a refined, genial, and charming 
 companion. To my mother and her young daughters 
 at her tea table he was an ever- welcome guest, and as 
 a consummate player of whist, he was equally com 
 panionable to my father." 
 
 With the writer of this comment, Benjamin soon 
 struck up a friendship, and the fruits thereof most ap 
 preciated by us are certain letters that passed between 
 them from time to time, and which are almost the 
 only letters available except those in the hands of 
 his own family. One of the earliest contains some 
 remarks about Seward, for whom Benjamin had a 
 most cordial hatred that polite manners hardly veiled. 
 Mr. Bayard had written to express the approval of 
 his father and himself on the latest of Benj amin's ex 
 positions of Southern principles and his denunciation 
 of the unscrupulous agitation of the Eepublicans, and 
 Benjamin replied, May 3, 1858 : 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR: Maybe you think I have taken 
 my full time to answer your kind favor of 24th March, 
 and certainly appearances are against me ; but I as 
 sure you the delay has arisen only from my desire to 
 do something more than write a few hurried lines, and 
 until now I have been utterly unable to do so. I 
 closed my last cases for the term in the Supreme Court 
 
176 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 on Friday, and now hope to bring up the arrears of 
 my correspondence, which has suffered terribly. I am 
 of course very much gratified that you were pleased 
 with my speech, and especially that you found in it 
 anything new to you. I believe that the great error 
 of the South has been in supineness, in neglect to meet 
 and expose fallacies which to her appeared too shallow 
 to serve any purpose of her enemies. But the older 
 we get, the better satisfied we become that no state 
 ment of fact or principle, however monstrous, is with 
 out some influence. A generous mind will repel with 
 scorn any imputation of dishonor against a person of 
 tried integrity, yet if to-morrow a newspaper should 
 publish a charge of bribery against the Chief Justice, 
 some one would be found to believe it, at all events to 
 suspect that it might be true. 1 Now Seward acts on 
 this principle, and I charged him with it in a speech 
 made four years ago on the Kansas question. You 
 speak of shame on his part why, I had scarcely 
 finished my speech when he said to me, ' Come, Ben 
 jamin, give me a segar, and I won't be mad with 
 you.' . . . 
 
 "Please present my best regards and remembrances 
 to your mother and sisters, and tell Miss Mabel that I 
 insist she shall send for her portrait if she values my 
 peace of mind. Her father's pride in it is intolerable, 
 and he turns a deaf ear to every suggestion that I will 
 have a better one made if he will give me the one he 
 now has for a model." 
 
 With all of his colleagues Benjamin was on terms at 
 least of mutual forbearance. Even his enemies did not 
 become angry with him personally, and he was so 
 skilful a diplomatist that he frequently got what he 
 wanted even from them. Indeed, he was in some ways 
 well fitted for that mission to Spain for which his 
 name was mentioned ; but a diplomatic post had not 
 1 See Chapter I for Benjamin's own experience. 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 177 
 
 sufficient attraction for him. Though the Spanish 
 Minister would always have occupation enough in set 
 tling petty but irritating filibustering difficulties, the 
 Senate offered greater and more congenial opportuni 
 ties for his energies and talent. 
 
 Yet good nature alone could not always suffice to 
 preserve at once friendly relations with rude antago 
 nists and his own self-respect. It was in the Senate 
 that there occurred a little incident of which much 
 was made by the press, 1 though in itself trivial enough. 
 
 Jefferson Davis, at that time senator from Missis 
 sippi, was in very bad health, and the distress of his 
 disease made him irritable and impatient of opposi 
 tion. During a debate on the army appropriation 
 bill, June, 1858, Senator Benjamin made a remark 
 which Davis corrected in a very ill-natured and super 
 cilious manner. The doughty Louisianian quietly re 
 peated his statement in another form and Davis 
 sneered again, adding that he considered what the 
 former had said as an " attempt to misrepresent a 
 very plain remark." There were more words which 
 did no credit to Mr. Davis, and which gossip reported 
 in less agreeable style than we find them in the of 
 ficial report of the Congressional Globe. He com 
 pletely lost his temper, while Benjamin, resenting what 
 had been said, maintained his position, in a dignified 
 way, and declined to pursue the subject further in the 
 Senate. Of what followed the Globe in its account of 
 Davis 7 s apologetic explanation, before that body, gives 
 only a hint. 
 
 1 E. g., Delta, June 16, 1858; Picayune, and True Delta, June 16th; 
 and for the account in the Globe, probably toned down, see 1857- 
 1858, Part III, p. 2780, et seq., and p. 2823. 
 
178 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 As is quite well known, there was only one way of 
 arranging such matters between gentlemen in those 
 days, and accordingly rumor reported all sorts of 
 things about the duel involving the two leaders. The 
 most accurate account is that furnished in some 
 private notes which were taken by Benjamin's warm 
 friend, Thomas F. Bayard: "Benjamin peremptorily 
 challenged Jefferson Davis for rude language in debate 
 and brought the note to my father in the session to be 
 copied and delivered. My father handed the note to 
 Davis in the cloak-room of the Senate. He read it 
 and at once tore it up, and said, i I will make this all 
 right at once. I have been wholly wrong. ' [He] 
 walked back to his desk in the Senate, and on the 
 first opportunity rose and made the most distinct with 
 drawal of what he had said, and regretted any offense 
 most amply. No one in the Senate but my father 
 knew what had called forth from Davis this apology ; 
 for Benjamin had sat down in silence when Davis 
 had made the rude interruption. But writing in 
 stantly at his desk, Benjamin called him to account 
 by the note, which contained a direct challenge, with 
 out asking for a withdrawal or explanation. When 
 the temper of the time is considered, the character of 
 the two men is strongly illustrated." 
 
 Benjamin's unfailing suavity, his gentleness, his 
 very looks deceived many people into thinking him 
 deficient in courage ; but he would resent an insult as 
 readily as any blusterer. Fortunately for all parties, 
 Mr. Davis had no need to fear any misconstruction of 
 his motives, and made the sort of amends that only 
 the truly courageous can make. Benjamin accepted 
 the explanation in a few simple words, stating that 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 179 
 
 he could confidently appeal to his brother senators to 
 bear him out when he said that he had always striven 
 to be courteous and patient of differences of opinion j 
 that he had been hurt by the asperity in the tone 
 and manner of one whom he respected and admired ; 
 but that he would be very glad to forget all be 
 tween them " except the pleasant passage of this 
 morning." Thus simply closed an incident whose 
 like was, with less happy ending, too sadly frequent 
 in Congressional annals. Its importance was mag 
 nified at the time, and the subsequent relations of 
 the two men made people attach an undue signifi 
 cance to it. Mr. Davis' s respect for the Louisian- 
 ian was no doubt increased by it, but acqaintance 
 did not of a sudden ripen into intimacy, as some 
 newspapers afterward said. Indeed, the two, while 
 friendly, continued to be often antagonistic in poli 
 tics, though forces far more potent were inevitably 
 bringing them together. 
 
 Before we undertake to review the critical events 
 of the year preceding the Civil War, it may be well to 
 conclude here with some account of matters not per 
 taining directly to politics with which Benjamin was 
 concerned. And in this connection, one of the most 
 important tasks will be to take note of his views 
 on our relations with Cuba. 
 
 His first public association with the Cuban ques 
 tion had been professional rather than political, and 
 it is hard to say how far he was acting as the law 
 yer. The irrepressible Lopez had organized an ex 
 pedition in New Orleans, in 1850, ostensibly to sail 
 for Chagres, but really intended, of course, for Cuba. 
 There was the usual fiasco, not without its trage- 
 
180 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 dies, and then a number of indictments were returned 
 against the Americans who had taken more or less 
 part in the purposed infraction of the neutrality 
 laws, including General Quitman, the governor of 
 Mississippi. It is not surprising that the govern 
 ment thought it necessary to employ additional 
 counsel for the prosecution of these cases, in view of 
 the fact that the District Attorney at New Orleans, 
 whose attention had been called to Lopez's prepara 
 tions in 1850, had replied to Secretary of State Clay 
 ton, May 14, 1850: " You may rely on it, that in 
 connection with the supposed expedition against 
 Cuba," which had already sailed "no law of the 
 United States has been violated in this district. 
 . . . The leaders of this enterprise have had good 
 legal advisers ! " l 
 
 The first case, against General Henderson, came on 
 for trial in January, 1851, and Benjamin was asso 
 ciated with the District Attorney for the prosecu 
 tion. There was a mistrial, the jury failing to agree. 
 The case was tried again, with the same result, and 
 again, and again, until the government, realizing 
 the impossibility of securing a conviction, gave up 
 the prosecution and dismissed all of the suits. Public 
 sentiment was too strongly in favor of the filibusters ; 
 when the cases were closed, a salute of thirty-one guns 
 (one for each state, and one for Cuba) was fired in 
 Lafayette Square. 3 
 
 The facts in the case seem very plain to unpreju 
 diced eyes, and Benjamin's speech to the jury in the 
 first trial, while not on a great subject, covered them all 
 
 1 Delta, Jan. 3, 10, 11, 14, 18, and 23, 1851. 
 9 Delta, Feb. 11, and 26 ; March 8. 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 181 
 
 aiid pointed out unerringly the violations of the neu 
 trality laws. We need not consider the legal points 
 in this address, but in v r iew of his later attitude on 
 Cuban annexation, we may quote a few passages that 
 were very unpopular in such a community : < ' What a 
 blaze of indignation fired the whole nation, a few years 
 ago, when some British officers, provoked to madness 
 by the aggressions of our own people, crossed over to 
 our soil and burned a steamer within our territory. The 
 blood mantled to every American cheek, and every 
 arm was raised to repel and avenge the insult offered 
 to our sovereignty. And yet, in the face of such facts, 
 showing our own sensibility to attacks of this char 
 acter, we are to listen day after day to verbal criti 
 cisms and metaphysical niceties of language, to show 
 that . . . there has been no violation of law." 
 He exposed the deceitful tricks and unworthy means 
 used to get up this expedition, and the absolute failure 
 of the " oppressed " Cubans to aid their " liberators " : 
 " Not a single movement has been made in Cuba ; not 
 a ripple disturbs the smooth current of the life of that 
 people ; not a single proof is given of their dissatisfac 
 tion with their lot ; these discontents exist only in the 
 imaginations of our Cuban bondholders. The rich are 
 busily engaged in rolling their sugar cane, gathering in 
 their rich crops ; the poor are eating tortilles^ smoking 
 cigars, swinging in hammocks, and sucking oranges ; 
 they do not appear to be at all troubled by their 
 oppression or disturbed with their lot. Their inde 
 pendence is to be achieved for them by our enterpris 
 ing young men who rejoice in the outlandish name of 
 ' Filibuster.'" 
 But neither evidence nor rhetoric could prevail 
 
182 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 against what the Delta called "the spirit of the age." 
 Indeed, the acute and uncharitable reader may find 
 sufficient reason for the disagreement of the juries in 
 the following bill of fare which, says this paper, ' the 
 first jury sent to the marshal, i i and which was promptly 
 filled by that courteous officer : l Soup : oyster and 
 turtle plenty. Eoasts : ducks and beef with inde 
 pendent vegetables and separate gravies. Vegetables : 
 Irish potatoes, mashed ; sweet potatoes, roasted ; onions, 
 boiled. Tenderloin steak with mushrooms; venison 
 steak with cranberry jelly. Custards, tarts, oranges, 
 raisins, mince pies, and bananas. Liquors : brandy, 
 Madeira, hock, and whiskey. Dinner for twenty-four. 
 Liquors for forty -eight.' " 
 
 Benjamin was indeed running counter to the "spirit 
 of the age" in this matter; and such a menu alone 
 might well outweigh his best arguments. Then, too, 
 rumors were set on foot that the Spanish government 
 had employed him to prosecute, or persecute, the 
 would-be liberators of Cuba. To this insinuation he 
 replied in one of his rare letters to the papers : 2 "I 
 observe it stated in a letter from Mississippi, published 
 in your paper of this date (May 22d), that Governor 
 Quitman had asserted, in a public speech, that I had 
 received from the Court of Spain a fee of $25,000 (!) 
 for assisting in the Cuban prosecutions. The story is 
 so ridiculous that I should not have deemed it worth 
 noticing, if coming from a less responsible source ; nor 
 can I now think it possible that a gentleman of Gov 
 ernor Quitman' s high position can really have said 
 such a foolish thing. Your correspondent must have 
 
 'Jan. 24, 1851. 
 5 Delta, May 23. 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 183 
 
 misunderstood him. Yet, as there is no limit to the 
 credulity of some people, I beg to say that I have 
 never been employed, directly or indirectly, by any 
 other person than Mr. Hun ton [District Attorney], 
 acting under an order from Washington, which was 
 shown to me when he employed me ; that I was never 
 promised, have never received nor do I ever expect 
 to receive, one cent of compensation for my services 
 from any other source than from the government of 
 the United States ; and in order that everybody taking 
 an interest in my private aifairs may be fully informed 
 on the subject, I will add that I have not yet received 
 one cent of compensation, even from our own govern 
 ment, and will feel much indebted to any kind gentle 
 man that will take the trouble to procure for me the 
 allowance of a reasonable fee from the authorities at 
 Washington. " 
 
 No doubt Benjamin was sincere in condemning the 
 filibusters and their methods. Both common sense 
 and common honesty must have convinced him that 
 expeditions like those of Lopez could not succeed, and 
 could not be anything but disgraceful to America if 
 they did by any chance succeed. In several public 
 utterances he showed that this was his view ; and he 
 was rather conspicuous for his willingness to concede 
 that there might be something to be said for Spain, 
 when others were shouting for summary extinction of 
 Spanish despotism, in Cuba, and incidentally for the 
 annexation of that valuable island. But the letter just 
 cited seems to me to be the production of the politician, 
 rather than of the man. Scores of libels, more absurd 
 and more damaging than Quitmau's nonsense, called 
 forth no public reply from Benjamin ; why should he 
 
184 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 choose to notice this one I It was not that he cared 
 for Quitman or his opinion, but that he might in some 
 measure mitigate the unpopularity that the lawyer had 
 brought on the politician by prosecuting the heroes 
 of the hour. It was bad enough, in all conscience, to 
 have been so employed professionally by his own gov 
 ernment ; it would have been almost certain political 
 ruin to have it thought that he was really pro-Spanish 
 in his sympathies. The letter, consequently, very 
 subtly leaves the impression, without actually saying 
 so, that Benjamin the lawyer of course did his best for 
 his clients in the case, but that Benjamin the politi 
 cian might not, after all, really hold opinions such as 
 had been expressed to the jury, and had certainly no 
 relations with the enemies of Israel and the possessors 
 of Cuba. 
 
 In all seriousness, however, it would have been 
 politically impossible for Benjamin to have been any 
 thing except an annexationist, an expansionist ; but 
 filibustering most frequently made at least a pretense 
 of aiming at the establishment of an independent gov 
 ernment in Cuba, and a free Cuba would most cer 
 tainly be no addition to the strength of the South. It 
 might, indeed, as he and others feared, 1 mean little 
 less than another San Domingo right across from 
 Florida. His action in the Senate, therefore, shows 
 him to have desired Cuba, though not with that 
 passion which would hurry him into union by Gretna 
 Green methods. There was to come a day when he 
 must have wished most devoutly that he could con 
 vince Spain that he had resolutely championed her 
 
 1 See Rhodes, Vol. II p. 25, and Benjamin's speech of Feb. 11. 
 1859, in the Senate. 
 
IN AND OUT OP THE SENATE 185 
 
 cause, not only against filibusters, which he had done 
 but against the greed of his own people, which he had 
 not done. 
 
 For some time we have heard nothing of the 
 Tehuantepec scheme, which we left in a very tangled 
 and unsatisfactory state, and which must now claim, 
 attention for a brief period of high promise and ap 
 parent prosperity. The Sloo contract 1 with the 
 Mexican government had proved as unfortunate as its 
 predecessors. Hargous, after the confirmation of the 
 new grant, had not by any means given up his fight, 
 though now he sought to secure his ends by indirect 
 means. When Sloo, unable to construct his road or 
 even to make the necessary payments to the Mexican 
 government, borrowed the funds from F. P. Falconnet, 
 an English banker residing in Mexico, Hargous ob 
 tained control of the grant by buying up this debt. 
 Since the debt to Falconnet, carrying a lien on the 
 property, antedated the Tehuantepec Company formed 
 in New Orleans with Emile La Sere as president, 
 it was rather hard to see that this corporation was 
 anything but i i the shadow of an insubstantial corpse, ' > 
 as one journalist remarked. In the early summer 
 of 1857, La Sere went to Washington, conferred 
 with Hargous and his attorney, Benjamin, and 
 agreed to an arrangement that would once more pro 
 tect the various interests involved. Benjamin could 
 probably have entirely disregarded the claims of 
 
 1 For the statements on this part of the Tehuantepeo episode, see 
 Senate Executive Documents 221, 1st Session 36th Congress ; Treaties 
 and Conventions of the United States, (1889), p. 697 and p. 1356 ; 
 Picayune, July 29 and Sept. 14, 1856 ; Aug. 2, Sept. 29, Got. 13, 
 1857 ; Delta, Aug. 6, Sept. 29 and 30, Oct. 1 and 12, 1857 ; True 
 Delta, Sept. 29, Nov. 1 and 13, 1857. 
 
186 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 La Sere's company ; it would have been neither honest 
 nor good policy, however, to have done so, for many 
 of his fellow citizens had invested their money in this 
 venture, and he knew that the ultimate success of the 
 scheme under any management would depend upon its 
 good name and upon the support of these very people. 
 
 Once more we find the advertisement of a Louisiana 
 Tehuantepec Company, its charter dated July 30, 
 1857. This charter, similar otherwise to that of pre 
 vious companies, carries an obligation to take up 
 financial responsibilities that fairly stagger one. 
 Omitting details, suffice it to say that it assumes, first, 
 the positive debt of $600,000, plus interest, to Falcon- 
 net 5 second, that stockholders and trustees of both old 
 companies are to be paid in stock of the new company, 
 dollar for dollar ; and third, that all just liabilities of 
 the La Sere company are likewise to be paid. But 
 even more discouraging than this beginning with 
 liabilities amounting to between three and four millions, 
 scarcely a pretense at effective work had been made on 
 the railroad, and even the carriage-road was largely 
 a fiction of the Mexican imagination, while another 
 chapter of uncertain and perhaps expensive negotiations 
 with Mexico must be gone through with to ratify the 
 forfeited Sloo grant once more. 
 
 In the charter of the new company, Benjamin and 
 La Sere were specially designated as the commis 
 sioners to arrange for this ratification. On August 
 2d, these two, representing the now consolidated 
 interests, sailed for Mexico on the steamship Texas. 
 Another passenger was Pierre Soule, 1 representing a 
 rebellious faction of the extinct Sloo company. Before 
 1 Cf. Diary of a Public Man, North American Review, 1879, p. 264. 
 
IN AND OUT OP THE SENATE 187 
 
 starting on his journey Benjamin had secured the good 
 will of President Buchanan. This was chiefly due to 
 the personal friendship existing between Mr. Slidell 
 and the Chief Executive. The former had become 
 interested in Tehuantepec, and through him Benjamin 
 had an opportunity to present the plans, prospects, 
 and hopes of an undertaking, which, if successful, 
 would be of national consequence. What the particu 
 lars of the interview were we shall never know ; but 
 the President so far favored Mr. Benj amin's project as 
 to send special instructions to Mr. Forsyth, Minister to 
 Mexico, informing him that Benjamin and La Sere 
 came on a mission approved by the administration ; 
 that they possessed the confidence of Mr. Buchanan ; 
 and that they were to be formally presented to the 
 Mexican President. At the same time, it was made 
 clear to Mr. Forsyth that the mission was not official, 
 but on business concerning private citizens, however 
 important might be the ultimate results. He was also 
 instructed to assist these gentlemen in every way in his 
 power, and to endeavor to secure from the Mexican 
 government proper safeguards not only for this par 
 ticular work but for the interests of the United States 
 in any transit across Tehuantepec. 
 
 This was the substance of a special note to Forsyth, 
 signed and sent out by Cass as Secretary of State, but, 
 if gossip is to be relied on, really written by Buchanan 
 himself. Nay, gossip goes farther, and reports that the 
 President said he would not entrust the writing of so im 
 portant a dispatch to " a superannuated old fogy " like 
 his Secretary of State. Gossip likewise reports un 
 pleasant things from the City of Mexico. The two 
 commissioners were cordially received and handsomely 
 
188 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 entertained by President Comonfort and other Mexican 
 dignitaries. And after weeks of wining and dining, 
 they returned in October to New Orleans, triumphant, 
 the Tehuantepec grant confirmed by an imposing 
 array of those extraordinary "decrees/' "pronuncia- 
 mentoes," or what-nots, produced in such bewildering 
 profusion on Spanish- American soil. So far all was 
 well. But news soon reached New Orleans that Soule 
 and Forsyth, while not able to defeat Benjamin, had 
 yet [made his task much more difficult ; and that, in 
 consequence, Benjamin had requested Slidell to lodge 
 a complaint against Forsyth at the Department of 
 State. At the same time Mexican newspapers began 
 to arrive. They said nothing of actual differences be 
 tween the Minister and Mr. Benjamin, but hinted that 
 the latter had sedulously labored to produce the im 
 pression in Mexico that he, and not Mr. Forsyth, was 
 really the important personage, the confidential repre 
 sentative of the President, in regard to the Tehuantepec 
 question. And one journal, the Trait d* Union (Sep 
 tember 14th), in summing up the heavy load of debts 
 with which the new company would have to start, con 
 cluded : "It will, moreover, have to provide for the 
 expenses (frais et pots de viri) incurred here to obtain 
 its privilege, which expenses amount to at least half a 
 million of dollars." 
 
 In regard to this uncomfortable insinuation about the 
 frais et pots de vin, the same newspaper published, a 
 few days later, a formal and indignant denial from 
 the commissioners of the Tehuantepec Company. In 
 regard to the charge that Mr. Benjamin had sought to 
 supplant Minister Forsyth when he found him not al 
 together in sympathy, we have no such satisfactory 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SENATE 189 
 
 evidence in rebuttal. The complaints against Forsyth 
 were not urged by Mr. Benjamin when he returned to 
 Washington. But it is not at all improbable that, 
 with his whole heart set on this Tehuantepec plan, 
 he allowed himself to speak indiscreetly of one who 
 seemed to him to be opposing where he was in honor 
 bound to aid. In his zeal for the Tehuantepec Com 
 pany he might well have forgotten, too, that Mr. 
 Forsyth' s first duty was to look after government 
 interests ; that the new grant from Mexico was not so 
 favorable to the United States as one which had been 
 covered by the eighth article of the Gadsden Treaty, 
 and that the Minister's opposition had been highly 
 commendable. It was an unfortunate little episode, 
 closing with spiteful comments on Benjamin. Gads- 
 den himself wrote a letter to the papers ; its style is so 
 bad as to be almost unintelligible (possibly the printer 
 is partly to blame); but as it contains one of the 
 earliest slurs upon Benjamin for his religious faith, I 
 set down one sentence as it stands : u The mesmeric 
 influences of Tehuantepec, and under the tribe of 
 Benjamin, seeking its inheritance in the land of Mexi 
 can promise, seems to have been again reanimated." 
 A brief season of apparent prosperity came to the 
 Tehuantepec Company. Mr. Benjamin raised funds 
 and actually got built a practicable road for vehicles 
 across the Isthmus. He coaxed a reluctant Postmaster- 
 General into granting a contract to carry the Cali 
 fornia mails via Tehuantepec, for one year, commenc 
 ing November 1, 1858. The company provided the 
 vsteamship Quaker City, and she started on her maiden 
 trip from New Orleans to Minatitlan, October 27, 
 1858. There was great jollification and congrat- 
 
190 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ulation. And there were more trips of the Quaker 
 City, and the mail came through from California 
 in twelve days less than by any other route. Then 
 suddenly followed the evil days Hargous Brothers 
 floundering in financial bogs ; the company well-nigh 
 ruined ; Mr. Benjamin, armed with personal letters to 
 the Barings and others from Slidell and from the 
 Chief Executive himself, wasting his summer vacation 
 (1859) in the effort to get financial aid in Europe. 
 The last hope, a hope that lingered on till the Civil 
 War, lay in negotiations between the two governments 
 concerned. Minister McClane, Forsyth's successor, 
 was instructed to open the question. He did so, and 
 had an assuring interview with Juarez ; but the end 
 of that adventurer could not then be definitely forecast, 
 and the United States could not recognize him as 
 de facto ruler while he was a mere fugitive. And so 
 large bundles of beautifully engraved stock certificates 
 of the Tehuantepec Company, bearing a heavy inter 
 est of dust, are probably still preserved in out of the 
 way places, and the fruitless Company concerns Mr. 
 Benjamin 7 s biographer no longer. 1 
 
 1 Picayune, Apr. 21, June 16, Aug. 25, Sept. 5 and 18, Oct. 27, 
 Nov. 11, 19, 20, 23, Dec. 8 ; Delta, June 16, Oct. 29, 1857 : True 
 Delta, Oct. 28, 1857, May 27, July 24, 29, Aug. 3, 1859; March 
 10, 1860. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 
 
 WHATEVER kindly apologists may say in defense of 
 President Buchanan and it would be puerile as well 
 as cowardly to suggest so much as a doubt of his up 
 rightness, kindliness, and good intentions his admin 
 istration had been, to say the least, inglorious. In 
 his foreign policy neither North nor South could take 
 pride ; the irritation of Spain and of Mexico had 
 been rather aggravated than allayed, nor was there 
 any positive if unrighteous gain, such as Polk could 
 point to, to please our own people. In his domestic 
 policy the Kansas incident is fairly typical : the maxi 
 mum of irritation to both North and South, and then 
 no result to please either. It was manifest that some 
 new leader must head the Democratic party, even if 
 the " old public functionary " should wish to continue 
 his service. Earlier than usual, therefore, the poli 
 ticians seriously began the search for another Presi 
 dential candidate. 
 
 No one could doubt that the strongest man in 
 the party was Stephen A. Douglas. But, like Clay, 
 Webster, Seward, and Blaine, he was to lose the 
 coveted prize just as it seemed within his grasp. 
 Even before the enunciation of his "Freeport Doc 
 trine, ' ? the Southern leaders had begun to doubt him 
 in those debates with Lincoln, and in his action on the 
 Kansas question, they found that which made them, 
 almost to a man, his irreconcilable enemies. Accord- 
 
192 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ingly they prepared to defeat him in the Charleston 
 convention, or to bind him by such a platform as 
 would secure the aims of their section. If he would 
 have consented to such a platform, they would have 
 trusted him. But, eager politician though he was, 
 Douglas was too honest and sincere to palter with his 
 principles. The result is known : the split in the 
 Democratic party, the secession of the Southern dele 
 gates, foreshadowing secession of a more formidable 
 sort, and the nomination of Breckinridge and Douglas 
 by the rival factions. It was Lincoln's "house di 
 vided against itself 77 in fateful fashion. 
 
 Though Benjamin had not yet begun open attacks 
 upon Douglas, he was entirely in accord with the other 
 Southern leaders in the policy pursued at Charleston, 
 and approved of the withdrawal of the Louisiana dele 
 gation from the convention. In a speech in the 
 Senate, May 8, I860, 1 he attempts to justify this 
 action, in words whose sincerity we see no reason to 
 question, and which recall former utterances : " Dis 
 tinctly opposite interpretations, or distinctly opposite 
 principles, if you choose, in relation to Southern rights 
 under the Constitution, were avowed at Charleston, by 
 men professing all to be Democrats. ... It is 
 unworthy of them, and unworthy of us all, that we 
 should go before the people of this country and ask 
 their votes in favor of one party or another, with the 
 avowed purpose of presenting opposite sets of prin 
 ciples in the two sections of the Confederacy, as being 
 the principles of a common party, and forming a com 
 mon party creed. I say that I will never be a party 
 to any such contest as that. If I go into an electoral 
 
 1 Globe, 1859-1860, Part III, p. 1967. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 193 
 
 contest, I want to know the principles of the party 
 with which I act, and I want, before the people of my 
 state, before the people of the country, to declare 
 those principles, to stand by them, to find them written 
 in letters of light, so that no man can dare misconstrue 
 them, and by them to stand, and with them, if need 
 be, fall." In the same strain he continues, that he 
 will support any available man who can honestly 
 stand on a platform satisfactory to his people : ' * That 
 far, sir, I am willing to go ; but I have no stomach for 
 a fight in which I am to have the choice between the 
 man who denies me all my rights, openly and fairly, 
 and a man who admits my rights but intends to filch 
 them." He saw little hope of finding such a platform 
 and such a man as the united Democracy could 
 support. 
 
 Nevertheless, Benjamin was one of the nineteen 
 Southern representatives who signed (May 17th) that 
 hopeless " Address to the National Democracy," l 
 urging the seceding delegates to go to Baltimore with 
 the Douglas faction, to await and work for some con 
 cession that will lead to reunion, and only after that 
 fails to join the rest of the Southern delegates at 
 Richmond. The signers of this document, including 
 Jefferson Davis, Reagan, Laniar, the senators from 
 Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia, and Louisiana, and 
 others, were unquestionably sincere in regretting the 
 division of the party, and in wishing to end it ; but the 
 Southerners, in this hour of fate, seemed to forget the 
 true nature of compromise, expecting all of the conces 
 sions to come from the other side. And the tone they 
 adopted toward the Northern wing of the Democracy, 
 
 1 Delta, May 22. 
 
194 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and toward Douglas in particular, was not such as to 
 calm angry passions. 
 
 The allusion to Douglas as the l ' man who admits 
 my rights but intends to filch them ' 7 is patent enough ; 
 it is personally applied in a fierce and unjust arraign 
 ment of his policy on May 22d. ' We can speak of this 
 attack as unjust only because its bitterness is greater 
 than the occasion called for, and because after events 
 have reestablished Douglas's good name in the world ; 
 for the charges made are essentially true, and the inter 
 pretation then put upon them was not unreasonable in 
 the light of things as they seemed. The logic of events 
 had impelled Douglas to retreat from extreme pro- 
 Southern views whose full significance to the section he 
 had perhaps never realized before ; only when he was 
 shown whither his own policies led did he halt, hesi 
 tate, seek a safe detour, and finally make an honest 
 confession that he had chosen a new route that did not 
 lead whither the South had insisted it must lead. 
 There is, then, no reading, without a pained sense of 
 their mingled justice and injustice, Benjamin's accus 
 ations of bad faith, of endless intrigue, of paltering 
 with the people of both sections in words that are inter 
 preted in one way at the North and quite another at 
 the South. 
 
 Benjamin had this to say of Douglas's antagonist in 
 those debates of 1858 : "In that contest the two candi 
 dates for the Senate of the United States, in the state 
 of Illinois, went before their people. They agreed to 
 discuss the issues ; they put questions to each other for 
 answer ; and I must say here, for I must be just to all, 
 that I have been surprised in the examination that I 
 
 1 Qlole, 1859-1860, Part III, p. 2233, et seq. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 195 
 
 made again within the last few days of this discussion 
 between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, to find that Mr. 
 Lincoln is a far more conservative man, unless he has 
 since changed his opinions, than I had supposed him to 
 be. There was no dodging on his part. Mr. Douglas 
 started with his questions. Here they are, with Mr. 
 Lincoln's answers.'' He then quotes the familiar 
 answers to Douglas's seven questions, such as, that 
 Lincoln is not in favor of the unconditional repeal 
 of the Fugitive Slave Law ; that he is not pledged 
 against the admission of more slave states, or of any 
 state with such constitution as the people of the state 
 may prefer ; that he is committed to a belief in the 
 right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the 
 territories, etc. 1 "It is impossible . . . not to 
 admire the perfect candor and frankness with which 
 these answers were given : no equivocation no eva 
 sion." And it is easy to present in ugly contrast the 
 disingenuous and evasive answers of Douglas to Lin 
 coln's questions, especially to the famous one : " Can 
 the people of a territory, in any lawful way, against 
 the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude 
 slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a 
 state constitution?" Douglas certainly made a poor 
 figure in this contrast, and in condemning the "Little 
 Giant," the Southerner expressed the resentful feel 
 ings of his section. 
 
 In spite of his partisan bias, however, Benjamin did 
 not forget justice and kindness. A little episode in 
 the Senate in 1860 may serve to show something of his 
 regard for principle as well as for the dictates of 
 humanity. As chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
 1 Globe, 1859-1860, Part III, p. 2237. 
 
196 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 niittee, Benjamin reported 1 to the Senate a bill author 
 izing the President to make contracts, for terms not 
 exceeding five years, with such organizations as the 
 African Colonization Society, to return to Africa 
 negroes taken from captured slavers. These forlorn 
 wretches were to be fed, clothed, and provided for till 
 they could look out for themselves, for a period of six 
 months, at a cost of not more than $100 each. An 
 amendment was made, extending the period of care 
 over the captives to one year, at the same cost ; and 
 the bill proposed an appropriation of $200, 000. There 
 were at the time about twelve hundred such negroes, 
 detained in camp, no doubt under bad conditions, at 
 Key West. 
 
 Mr. Davis opposed the bill, as a waste of public 
 money, and maintained that we should be carrying 
 out our treaty obligations if we merely took the 
 negroes back to the point whence they were shipped 
 and turned them, loose. Brown, of Mississippi, de 
 clared he was unwilling to support them l i out of the 
 national treasury one hour after " they got to the coast 
 of Africa. Mallory, of Florida, championed a scheme 
 that was attracting some attention in the press ; viz., 
 to "apprentice" the captives to planters for five 
 years. Mason, of Virginia, opposed the bill on the 
 ground that he thought the power of stopping the 
 slave-trade should belong to the states, as did Toombs, 
 of Georgia, on similar grounds. 
 
 Benjamin, against all of these prominent men of his 
 own party, took a broader and more humane view of 
 our obligations under the treaty with Great Britain : 
 "The government of the United States is bound by 
 
 1 Globe, Part III, pp. 2304, 2306, et seq. 
 
PKESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 197 
 
 treaty stipulations to aid in the suppression of the 
 slave-trade. If that treaty binds us, it is our duty to 
 carry it out in good faith. If it does not, then we 
 ought to refuse the performance of that duty openly 
 and fairly, by declaring that we are not bound by the 
 treaty, and do not mean to execute it. No one has yet 
 taken the latter position. The treaty binds us in good 
 faith to aid in the suppression of the slave-trade. 
 That being the obligation of the government, the prac 
 tical question alone was presented to the committee. 
 . . . The captive Africans are on our shore ; what 
 shall be done with them ? That was the simple prac 
 tical question to which we looked. I desired, if pos 
 sible, to avoid the constant recurrence of agitating 
 discussions in the Senate. Finding the negroes there, 
 I could conceive of no mode of disposing of them more 
 expedient, viewing all the circumstances of the case, 
 than that suggested by the President of the United 
 States, which had been adopted by President Monroe, 
 and afterward by himself. Until the proposition that 
 has just been read for information, just presented by 
 the senator from Florida, which I shall not discuss, 
 which I do not approve nobody had hitherto sug 
 gested that anything else could be done with these 
 slaves than to take them back to Africa. . . . We 
 are not bound to go in search of the domicile of each 
 one of the liberated captives, and take him just back 
 to where he was originally taken from ; but we take 
 him. back and put him as far on his way home as we 
 can, and at the same time pay just regard to the dic 
 tates of humanity. . . . I do not myself construe 
 the obligations of our government as the senator from 
 Mississippi does. I think it was understood between 
 
198 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Great Britain and this country, when that treaty was 
 made, that we would endeavor to stop the slave-trade 
 on the coast of Africa by rendering it impossible to 
 prosecute it ; and we expected to do that by capturing 
 vessels engaged in it. I do not think myself other 
 gentlemen may take a different view of the obligation 
 that it would be consistent with fair dealing between 
 this government and Great Britain to take these slaves 
 off the ships and take them back to the barracoons 
 to be resold. That is my view of our national obliga 
 tion. If I am right in that view of it and I am firmly 
 convinced I am right, I do not say I may not be mis 
 taken that it is our duty under that treaty to arrest, 
 as far as we can, the prosecution of the slave-trade, 
 then something else must be done with these slaves 
 besides putting them back in the hands of the slave- 
 traders and slave-dealers on the coast." 
 
 On the final vote there were but fourteen nays, in 
 cluding the senators before named and some others, 
 such as Slidell, Wigfall, and Yulee ; while among the 
 forty-one yeas were some notable Southerners, such as 
 Chesnut, Clingmau, Crittenden, Hunter, and Pearce. 
 It would be as idle to commend their vote praise is 
 uncalled for in a case where duty and humanity both 
 pointed the path as to fancy that the vote of the 
 opposition was due to lack of plain perceptions of 
 duty and humanity ; those on the negative side were 
 the nucleus of the determined obstructionists of any 
 measure likely to be pleasing to the North. 
 
 Nothing else of much note came up in the Senate in 
 the few remaining weeks of the session. In fact, even 
 practiced observers at the time failed to see any mo 
 mentous stir or active interest in politics during the 
 
PKESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 199 
 
 summer of this year. Knowing how portentous were 
 the results, that the black cloud upon the Southern 
 horizon was indeed charged with lightning, we per 
 haps exaggerate the enthusiasm and excitement of 
 the campaign of 1860. The correspondent of the Lon 
 don Times was obviously disgusted at the lack of 
 interest, for he wrote in August, 1 in the tone of one ag 
 grieved because the play is not so thrilling as the 
 posters: "The most striking feature of the present 
 presidential contest is the comparative apathy of the 
 American public. They cannot be raised to the requi 
 site degree of enthusiasm either for Breckenridge and 
 Lane, or Bell and Everett, or Lincoln and Douglas, or 
 any other man or pair of men. The old secession cry 
 of South Carolina, raised by Mr. Keitt, a legislator of 
 the Brooks school, falls as dead as the ' screamers ? of 
 the New York Herald. ' ' Yet the country was gathering 
 heat as the time of election drew on, and sundry rum 
 blings and mutteriugs, more among the camp-followers 
 than from the leaders, gave warning that the South 
 was preparing herself for separate existence in case 
 the vote favored Lincoln. Persons of apparent ra 
 tionality on other topics were writing to the papers 
 with various hopeful plans to foil the Black Eepub- 
 licans. Most of them in Mr. Benj amin's own state 
 seem to oppose absolute secession, but not a few coun 
 sel rigid non-intercourse between North and South, 
 social, political, industrial, intellectual. What was 
 to become of the Union under these circumstances is, 
 unfortunately, not stated. And commercial gentlemen 
 of all sorts conjure Southerners to be patriotic in their 
 purchases ; as, "in view of the impending crisis that 
 
 1 Quoted in True Delta, Aug. 28. 
 
200 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Abe Lincoln maybe elected, " let all Louisianians buy 
 Southern sewing machines instead of the inferior Black 
 Republican article. 1 Occasionally some extreme fire- 
 eater breathes destruction in a fashion that must have 
 taxed the patience of the most submissive typesetter. 
 Thus some injudicious parties having expressed a wish 
 to know "his views,' 7 a well-known planter of Terre- 
 bonne Parish aimed a three-column letter at them, 
 whose style may be imagined from the following 
 verbatim extract : 8 " We must not, cannot, and will 
 not submit to wrong and oppression, so we must war 
 against and fight our enemies, and be forced against our 
 will to fight our friends and relations. In New York 
 at the last election, it shows the Southern states had 
 350,000 votes, which are our friends. . . . From 
 these calculations and knowledge, on very favorable 
 terms we commence the war and battle, and, with a 
 small band of our patriotic and brave fighting men, we 
 can very easily whip, scare and put to flight the negro 
 stealers and murderers with our patriotic and fighting 
 army assisted by 350,000 in their own state, New 
 York." 
 
 With such ebullitions, of course, Benjamin would 
 have been as much irritated as we are ; but there was 
 little opportunity during this campaign for discover 
 ing his opinions, further than what was amply ex 
 pressed in the Senate speeches of the spring ; for he 
 was absent from the state on his last great legal case 
 in this country. Before he started for California 
 to continue this suit, the firm of Benjamin, Bradford 
 and Finney had been succeeded by that of Benjamin, 
 
 1 True Delta, Oct. 12 ; cf. Nov. 28. 
 8 True Delta, Dec. 16. 
 
PKESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 201 
 
 Bonford and Finney. 1 Mr. Bradford, in poor health, 
 retired from the partnership temporarily (so it was 
 then intended), to travel in Europe. The new firm 
 went on as if there had been no break, for Mr. P. E. 
 Bouford was no novice at the New Orleans bar. But 
 not a full year elapsed before it was dissolved and 
 the three partners were enlisted in the service of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 The case of the United States vs. Castillero involved 
 the title to the famous quicksilver mine, New Alma- 
 den, discovered in 1845 by Andres Castillero, to whom 
 the Mexican governor, Pio Pico, had given possession, 
 together with three thousand varas of land in every 
 direction from its mouth. Not long after this, Cali 
 fornia was ceded to the United States (February 2, 
 1848). In the present suit Calhoun Benham and Ed 
 mund Eandolph, for the government, denied the genu 
 ineness of Castillero' s title papers, and the right of the 
 Mexican governor to make him a grant of land in 
 California. The counsel for the claimants were A. C. 
 Peachy, Eeverdy Johnson, and J. P. Benjamin ; the 
 last named, owing to his special familiarity with 
 such land claims and with the Spanish laws, prepared 
 the brief and made the leading argument. The trial 
 began on October 8, 1860, before the Circuit Court for 
 California, and Benjamin's argument ran through four 
 days, October 24th, 25th, 26th, and November 5th. 
 The legal points of the case, however, being of interest 
 to few, we shall omit ; for though the sums involved 
 were so great that Benjamin received a fee of twenty- 
 five thousand dollars for his services, it was after all 
 but a private claim. The decision of the Circuit 
 
 1 Picayune, July 11. 
 
202 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Court, January 18, 1861, was adverse to the claimants, 
 who appealed to the Supreme Court, before which the 
 brilliant Louisiana advocate could no longer personally 
 appear. But the " counsel on appeal for the claimants, 
 including Eeverdy Johnson, Charles O' Conor, and 
 J. J. Crittendeu, did him the signal honor of filing a 
 copy of his brief with the Supreme Court, when the 
 case reached that tribunal in January, 1863, at a time 
 when Benjamin himself was premier of the Confed 
 erate cabinet." 1 This was an honest confession that 
 they could not hope to improve upon the cogency of 
 the plea of the ''rebel." 
 
 From far California the lawyer hastened back to 
 find war in the political atmosphere in Louisiana and 
 at Washington. He had not returned when the ses 
 sion opened, but arrived shortly afterward. During 
 all the summer and autumn, he had been absent from 
 his state and silent on the political issues. Now that 
 the expected had really happened, and the " Black 
 Bepublican" was actually elected President, men were 
 forced to show whether they meant to make good the 
 threats uttered during the campaign ; and not a few 
 had wavered, hesitated, weakened in the face of the 
 crisis in a way that left constituencies most uncertain 
 as to what their representatives would really do. 
 Though known as a secession man, Benjamin had not 
 stumped the state, making threats of disunion in case 
 of Lincoln's election ; one had to be vociferous for 
 Southern rights to be heard above the din then making, 
 and Benjamin was not half prompt enough in an 
 nouncing his separatist views to suit the excited people. 
 
 1 See Kohler, p. 71, and for further details of the case, 2 Black's 
 U. S. Reports 1, vol. 67. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OP 1860 203 
 
 At one time the New Orleans papers ' report that he is 
 to make a strong Union speech in the Senate, and a 
 fortnight later, more correctly, that he is counted on 
 for a strong speech in favor of secession ; certainly, 
 however, the correspondent of the Picayune was right 
 when he stated that " Mr. Benjamin opposes secession, 
 except in the last resort. " 
 
 That last resort, however, in his judgment, had been 
 already reached. The Delta of December 23d, pub 
 lished a letter from Benjamin himself, dated at Wash 
 ington, December 8th, in which he briefly and un 
 equivocally outlines his opinions. He believed : 
 
 1 i 1. That the feeling of a large number, if not a 
 majority, of the people of the North is hostile to our 
 interests ; that this feeling has been instilled into the 
 present generation from its infancy ; that it is founded 
 upon the mistaken belief that the people of the North 
 are responsible for the existence of slavery in the 
 South ; that this conviction of a personal responsibility 
 for what they erroneously believe to be a sin, springs 
 chiefly from the consideration that they are, with us, 
 members of a common government, and that the 
 Union itself is thus made the principal cause of hostile 
 interference by them with our institutions. 
 
 " 2. That no just reason exists for hoping for any 
 change in Northern feeling, and no prospect remains 
 of our being permitted to live in peace and security 
 within the Union. 
 
 "3. That, therefore, the interest of the South, the 
 very instinct of self-preservation, demands a prompt 
 severance of all connection with a government which 
 has itself become an obstacle to what it was designed 
 
 1 Picayune and others, Dec. 11 ; cf. Dec. 16 and 23. 
 
204 JUDAH P. BENJAMIH 
 
 to effect, viz. , ' Insuring domestic tranquillity, and pro 
 moting general welfare. 7 
 
 " 4. That to effect this purpose separate state action 
 is vitally necessary. . . . 
 
 1 i The opinions thus hurriedly expressed have been 
 deliberately formed. They have been gradually forced 
 upon me by intercourse with the accredited represent 
 atives of Northern sentiment, and each day adds to 
 my conviction of their truth.' 7 
 
 At this turning point in Benjamin's life the biog 
 rapher may be pardoned for citing at such length a 
 manifesto that sets forth so little of which we need have 
 been in doubt. With the deliberate statement of his 
 convictions in the first three articles of this creed 
 we cannot be startled; for all of this Benjamin had 
 said before, and was to say again, more eloquently. It 
 does surprise us, as showing an advance to the extreme 
 radical position of the secessionists, to find him urging 
 separate state action, i. e., secession first, and attempts 
 to cooperate with other seceding states afterward. 
 This, nevertheless, was no bait hastily thrown out 
 to the extremists in Louisiana, but a deliberate 
 opinion. He reaffirmed it in signing the address of 
 Southern congressmen to their constituents, 1 stating 
 their belief that "the honor, safety, and independence 
 of the Southern people require the organization of a 
 Southern confederacy a result to be obtained only by 
 separate state action ; that the primary object of each 
 slave-holding state ought to be its speedy and absolute 
 separation from a union with hostile states." But, 
 once admitting the right of secession, and convinced 
 that the time had come to exercise that right, it would 
 
 1 Dec. 14 ; see Delta, Dec. 22. 
 
PKESIDEOTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 205 
 
 be difficult to deny that this separate action by the 
 states was expedient, nay, that it was the only prac 
 ticable way of meeting the situation. The argument 
 to this effect is presented, though not with much co 
 gency, in an address to the Louisiana Convention, 1 
 signed by Benjamin and Slidell. The strongest plea 
 would have been the simplest : in beginning a revolu 
 tion promptness not only gives vigor to the revolutionary 
 cause but demoralizes the established forces. This, how 
 ever, would have involved the confession that secession 
 was nothing short of revolution, a confession that few 
 of the Southern politicians cared to make, though we 
 shall see Benjamin very distinctly resting the Southern 
 case on the inherent right of revolution, in the last 
 great speeches he made in the Senate. 
 
 In reviewing what we have had to say of his oratory 
 in the Senate, there may seem to be too great copious 
 ness of superlatives in its praise, and much iteration, 
 nearly all of the longer orations being on the same 
 theme the exposition of Southern rights. By no 
 means shall we regret the first charge as a fault ; the 
 last is self-evident. Let any one who can, regardless 
 of political opinions, be roused to a genuine feeling for 
 the mere grace of expression, dazzling brilliance of 
 reasoning and withering force of sarcasm ; let any one, 
 in short, who has a love for style and an interest in 
 forensics read this splendid series of orations, and then 
 formulate a judicious estimate of Benjamin as an orator 
 and expounder of the political principles in which the 
 South believed. Such a one, I am assured, would find 
 it difficult to express himself in strictly measured 
 terms. And so it is that we must preface a thrilling 
 
 1 Sm. 14, 1861 ; Delta, Jan. 26. 
 
206 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 oration, delivered in the Senate on the last day of the 
 year 1860. 
 
 The first aim of this address 1 is to make clear the ac 
 tual, practical situation in South Carolina now that she 
 has seceded ; to establish the right of secession ; and to 
 show the wrong and the folly of the course proposed by 
 the administration. At the beginning, however, before 
 the statement of the principal part of his aim, he refers 
 to his speech of May 2, 1856, and in a few simple phrases 
 recites the most potent of the causes for the unexampled 
 bitterness and violence of Southern feeling toward the 
 North : "Mr. President, it has been justly said that 
 this is no time for crimination ; and, sir, it is in no 
 such spirit, but with the simple desire to free myself 
 personally, as a public servant, from all responsibility 
 for the present condition of affairs, that I desire to 
 recall to the Senate some remarks made by me in de 
 bate more than four years ago, in which I predicted 
 the precise state of public feeling now, and pointed 
 out the two principal causes that were certain to pro 
 duce that state. The first was the incessant attack of 
 the Eepublicans, not simply on the interests, but on 
 the feelings and sensibilities of a high-spirited people 
 by the most insulting language and the most offensive 
 epithets ; the other was their fatal success in persuad 
 ing their followers that these constant aggressions 
 could be continued and kept up with no danger ; that 
 the South was too weak, and too conscious of weak 
 ness, to dare resistance.' 7 Hereupon follows the quo 
 tation reiterating his disbelief in the possibility of a 
 peaceable dissolution of the Union. As Benjamin 
 intimates, and as some Northern writers are now be- 
 
 1 Globe, 1860-61, Part I, p. 212, et. aeq. 
 
PBESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 207 
 
 ginning to comprehend, it was not so much what the 
 Eepublicans or even the Abolitionists and the people 
 of the South were convinced that the two were Siamese 
 twins had done or might do that wrought them to 
 the pitch of frenzy and vicious, uncontrollable rage 
 against the North ; it was the things they said, and 
 very horrid things they were, that galled. Nay, even 
 if the North did not speak, she thought these things ; 
 and, half -conscious of being on the defensive, with the 
 opinion of the civilized world against her, the South 
 could not bear to be so regarded. Unless one has 
 personally experienced that sort of utterly childish and 
 yet wholly human temper, one can hardly account for 
 Southern feeling. 
 
 In the subsequent portion of the speech Benjamin 
 proceeds to a consideration of the existing situation in 
 South Carolina, and the impending secession of seven 
 other states. Then he squarely presents the question : 
 Shall we recognize the fact that South Carolina has 
 become an independent state, or shall we wage war 
 upon her ? As to her right to become an independent 
 state, to secede, that he plants firmly on the inherent 
 right of revolution. " From the time that this people 
 declared its independence of Great Britain, the right 
 of the people to self-government in its fullest and 
 broadest extent has been a cardinal principle of 
 American liberty. None deny it. And in that right, 
 to use the language of the Declaration itself, is in 
 cluded the right, whenever a form of government be 
 comes destructive of their interests or their safety, i to 
 alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new govern 
 ment, laying its foundation on such principles and 
 organizing its powers in such form as to them shall 
 
208 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 seem most likely to effect their safety and happi 
 ness. > " 
 
 But quite aside from the right of revolution, there 
 is, he maintains, a right of secession. Once more he 
 marshals, with force and lucidity, the historical and 
 constitutional arguments in support of this idea. But 
 even granting that South Carolina has no right to 
 secede, that she is utterly mistaken, it is a patent fact 
 that she has seceded : " You still have the same issue 
 to meet, face to face. You must permit her to with 
 draw in peace, or you must declare war. That is, you 
 must coerce the state itself, or you must permit her to 
 depart in peace. There is nothing whatever that can 
 render for an instant tenable the attempted distinction 
 between coercing a state itself, and coercing all the 
 individuals in the manner now proposed.' 7 He dis 
 poses of this idea by a reductio ad dbsurdum similar to 
 the familiar one in Webster's reply to Hayne. For, 
 he says, if there be anything in this notion, it should 
 stand the test of practical application. Now suppose a 
 violation of United States laws in South Carolina, who 
 is to arrest the violator ? There is no United States 
 marshal there now. Suppose him arrested, who is to 
 try him? Is there a Federal judge there? And 
 granted the judge, where will you get a jury that will 
 recognize your jurisdiction, much less one that will 
 convict, in a community that has almost unanimously 
 repudiated all connection with you ? 
 
 He accuses the Eepublican party of putting a false 
 and treacherous construction on the Constitution, to 
 the prejudice of the South, as Ehadamistus swore to 
 Mithridates that he would use neither steel nor poison 
 against him, and kept this promise by smothering his 
 
PEESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OP 1860 209 
 
 captive. " You do not propose to enter into our states, 
 you say, and what do we complain of? You do not 
 pretend to enter into our states to kill or destroy our 
 institutions by force. Oh, no ! You imitate the faith 
 of Rhadamistus : you propose simply to close us in an 
 embrace that will suffocate us. You do not propose to 
 fell the tree ; you promised not. You merely propose 
 to girdle it, that it die. And then, when we tell you 
 that we did not understand this bargain this way, and 
 that your acting upon it in this spirit releases us from 
 the obligations that accompany it ; that under no cir 
 cumstances can we consent to live together under that 
 interpretation, and say : * We will go from you ; let 
 us go in peace ; 7 we are answered by your leading 
 spokesman : l Oh, no, you cannot do that ; we have 
 no objection to it personally, but we are bound by our 
 oaths : if you attempt it, your people will be hanged 
 for treason. We have examined this Constitution 
 thoroughly ; we have searched it out with a fair spirit, 
 and we can find warrant in it for releasing ourselves 
 from the obligation of giving you any of its benefits, 
 but our oaths force us to tax you ; we can dispense 
 with everything else ; but our consciences, we protest 
 upon our souls, will be sorely worried if we do not take 
 your money.' That is the proposition of the honor 
 able senator from Ohio, in plain language. He can 
 avoid everything else under the Constitution in the 
 way of secession ; but how he is to get rid of the duty 
 of taking our money he cannot see." 
 
 After this touch of ridicule, drawing laughter from 
 his auditors, a short transition brings on the eloquent 
 peroration, delivered with such dramatic effect that 
 those who heard and some live still never forgot .it : 
 
210 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 " And now, senators, within a few weeks w r e part to 
 meet as senators in one common council chamber of 
 the nation no more forever. We desire, we beseech 
 you, let this parting be in peace. I conjure you to 
 indulge in no vain delusion that duty or conscience, 
 interest or honor, imposes upon you the necessity of 
 invading our states or shedding the blood of our people. 
 You have no possible justification for it. I trust it is 
 in no craven spirit, and with no sacrifice of the honor 
 or dignity of niy own state, that I make this last 
 appeal, but from far higher and holier motives. If, 
 however, it shall prove vain ; if you are resolved to 
 pervert the government framed by the fathers for the 
 protection of our rights into an instrument for subjugat 
 ing and enslaving us, then, appealing to the Supreme 
 Judge of the universe for the rectitude of our inten 
 tions, we must meet the issue that you force upon us 
 as best becomes freemen defending all that is dear to 
 man. What may be the fate of this horrible contest, 
 no man can tell, none pretend to foresee; but this 
 much I will say : the fortunes of war may be adverse 
 to our arms ; you may carry desolation into our peace 
 ful land, and with torch and fire you may set our 
 cities in flames ; you may even emulate the atrocities 
 of those who, in the war of the Eevolution, hounded 
 on the bloodthirsty savage to attack upon the de 
 fenseless frontier ; you may, under the protection of 
 your advancing armies, give shelter to the furious 
 fanatics who desire, and profess to desire, nothing 
 more than to add all the horrors of a servile insurrec 
 tion to the calamities of civil war ; you may do all 
 this, and more, too, if more there be but you never 
 can subjugate us ; you never can convert the free sons 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 211 
 
 of the soil into vassals, paying tribute to your power ; 
 and you never, never can degrade them to the level of 
 an inferior and servile race. Never ! Never ! " 
 
 Then followed, says the Globe, such a burst of ap 
 plause in the galleries that the chair ordered the 
 gentlemen's gallery to be closed; and immediately 
 thereafter the Senate adjourned. At the season of 
 Christmas holidays, and when the young were watch 
 ing every move with frantic enthusiasm, the old with 
 feelings wherein doubt, regret, fear mingled with un 
 quenchable sympathies for the cause of their own 
 state, many visitors had come to Washington. Upon 
 them, eager listeners to the speeches made by promi 
 nent leaders, no longer to persuade House or Senate, 
 but as vindications of their course before the nation, 
 as trumpet calls to their friends and defiance to their 
 foes, this address of Benjamin's had telling effect. 
 One, who came as a schoolboy on his holidays to see 
 the sights of the capital in this time of storm and 
 stress, told the writer of this scene at its close, and of 
 the wild cheers of himself and his companions. He 
 could recite a few of the concluding phrases, though 
 he had not read the speech since, so lasting was the 
 impression on his memory. Tradition has associated 
 with the Louisianian's real farewell to the Senate, to 
 be mentioned presently, a much quoted remark by Sir 
 George Cornewall Lewis, but one is not so sure that 
 it might not more fitly apply here. " Have you read 
 Benjamin's speech?" he is reported to have asked 
 Lord Sherbrooke, adding, "It is better than our Ben- 
 jamiu [Disraeli] could have done." 
 
 The press of the day recognized this as the senator's 
 supreme effort, and it compelled the admiration even 
 
212 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 of hostile papers. One of the Northern journals gives 
 so interesting a pen-picture of the orator as he 
 spoke that we must not pass it by : * " He made a 
 capital speech ; quiet, and if not exactly dignified, his 
 manner was self-possessed and resolute. He went over 
 the whole ground of Southern causes of complaint 
 against the North as coolly and dispassionately as if 
 arguing a case before the Supreme Court. There was 
 no fine speaking j no appeal to the feelings ; and 
 yet the attention of the galleries was unbroken. The 
 ladies, too, listened as closely as the reporters. He 
 summed up his argument very calmly, read from a 
 written paper, in a measured legal tone, the causes of 
 difference, and then concluded. This conclusion was 
 a telling shot. He spoke coolly of the approaching 
 dissolution of the Union, and the contest that might 
 ensue. He enumerated the horrors of civil war 
 alluded to the probability of the South' s not being 
 able to defend herself. It was all repeated over as 
 calmly as had been his authorities. He stood in a 
 simple position, between two desks, one foot crossed 
 over the other, no attitude, no gesture. As he reached 
 the close, he had one hand in his pocket, the other 
 negligently toying with a vest chain. He balanced 
 his head a little to and fro, in a truly professional man 
 ner. Only his black eyes showed the emotion he must 
 have felt. They were elongated, as BacheFs some 
 times became, when at her stillest, most concentrated 
 points of acting the quiet curse in Camille, for ex 
 ample scintillating with light ; a faint smile, just a 
 little scornful, as he said, ' You may set our cities in 
 flames . . . you will never subjugate us.' He let 
 
 1 Philadelphia Bulletin, quoted in Delta, Jan. 16. 
 
PKESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 213 
 
 go of his vest chain, and put his other hand coolly 
 into his pocket, and, as he half- turned to take his seat, 
 he added : i An enslaved and servile race you can 
 never make of us never ! never ! ' This reiteration 
 of the word t never ' was as free from emotion as if he 
 had been insisting on some simple point of law, which 
 could not be decided in any different way. But, free 
 from emotion as it was, it produced the greatest effect. 
 The whole gallery, on all sides, burst out as in one 
 voice, in uncontrollable applause. " 
 
 But once more was the silvery voice of the gifted 
 leader from Louisiana to charm the Senate in a set 
 address. The interval before his withdrawal from that 
 body was filled with schemes of compromise that might, 
 so their advocates hoped, extinguish the conflagration 
 already begun. Among the people and the represent 
 atives of the South, there was diligent, even feverish 
 preparation for separation from the Union ; since it 
 must come, they seemed to think delay a dishonor. 
 They would show the insulting Yankees, who had be 
 lieved this but one more Southern " bluff," that the 
 other states were ready to stand by South Carolina, to 
 the uttermost. Among the Eepublicans of set pur 
 pose, it appears, there was dogged or sullen si 
 lence, resolute and exasperating inaction. In Congress 
 they ceased from troubling with those too righteous 
 and too irritating disquisitions on the iniquity of 
 slavery and of the slave-holder. They said nothing ; 
 nor would they do anything, either aggressive or 
 of conciliatory tendency. They seemed content to 
 block all efforts at compromise and let Southern rash 
 ness lead the South whither it would. Among the 
 moderate men of all parties, forlorn old Whigs and 
 
214 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Americans, and Northern Democrats, cowed by the 
 impending ruin of their long triumphant party, there 
 was much despairing negotiation. The most notable 
 attempt was the compromise proposed by Senator 
 Crittenden, of Kentucky, who nobly, though fruit 
 lessly, strove to emulate the great statesman from 
 Kentucky who had twice saved the Union when its 
 stability seemed endangered. 
 
 The Crittenden Compromise was a sort of wet blanket 
 or patent fire extinguisher with which certain opti 
 mists hoped to put out this national Vesuvian eruption. 
 Yet, among the might-have-beens, one must not omit 
 to consider what were the chances of success of this 
 measure, and why it failed. If you read the story of 
 the closing scenes in Congress, during the last months 
 of 1860 and the beginning of 1861, in the books of the 
 historians of the North, you will find it said that 
 Mr. Benjamin and five other Southern senators voted 
 against the Crittenden Compromise. An examination 
 of the Congressional Globe will show that this is, in the 
 mere letter, true ; Mr. Benjamin and five other Southern 
 senators simply refused to vote at a time when they 
 could have defeated an amendment hostile to the 
 very spirit of the compromise offered by Crittenden. 
 The amendment was carried, and these senators, so it is 
 said, left the house immediately and telegraphed to 
 their respective states that there was no hope of set 
 tlement ; therefore, say those who accept the state 
 ment unquestioned, upon these men rests the awful 
 responsibility of making the war inevitable, of reject 
 ing the compromise offered them. To all of which 
 any candid student must answer, " Positively not 
 proven, 77 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 215 
 
 In the first place, it was no gracious offering 
 from the party victorious in the late election, and 
 wickedly rejected by truculent and selfish Southern 
 politicians bent on embroiling the country in a civil 
 war. On the contrary, proposed by a Southerner, it 
 had the support of all the Southern members, exclusive 
 of one or two extremists ; and it met with the all but 
 unanimous opposition of the Republican members of 
 the House and of the Senate. In the Senate, par 
 ticularly, they fought it by every means in their 
 power, and sought to delay its consideration, perhaps 
 in the hope that the exasperated South might in the 
 meantime prejudice her cause by some violent out 
 break. At last, when the question could not longer be 
 kept from coming to a vote, and after days of debate 
 wherein they had all too plainly exposed the unre 
 lenting spirit in which they proposed to meet those 
 over whom they had won a doubtful victory in electing 
 the President, a Republican senator, Mr. Clark, of New 
 Hampshire, moved an amendment to the Crittenden 
 Compromise that he knew could not be acceptable to 
 the South ; and every Republican senator voted for it. 
 And then do you blame them? Mr. Benjamin and 
 those five others refused to help achieve a barren 
 victory in the defeat of this amendment, seeing in 
 what spirit the opposition was acting. They allowed 
 the compromise to go a little earlier to the death 
 that it could not long have escaped. 
 
 It is a cheerful symptom of restored health in the 
 Union when we find one of the ablest of Northern 
 historians, Mr. Rhodes, admitting the facts to be as we 
 have stated them: l u The truth is that it was the 
 
 1 Yol. in, p. 267. 
 
216 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Eepublicans who for a second time defeated, for weal 
 or woe, the Crittenden Compromise." There is an 
 other erroneous impression concerning Benjamin and 
 the other Southern leaders that Mr. Khodes may help 
 us to correct, especially since contemporary opinions 
 on the same side may be cited. 
 
 What of Benjamin' s brilliant talents, it may be 
 asked, if they were deliberately and wickedly used to 
 encourage the people in the fatal policy of secession ; to 
 fan the flame of sectional hate ; to make inevitable the 
 bloody and desolating war from which the South has 
 not yet fully recovered! That is what Mr. Blaine, 
 in his book called Twenty Years of Congress says of 
 Judah P. Benjamin, " the Mephistopheles of the 
 Southern Confederacy." That is what many on the 
 other side and some even on his own said, as if 
 the great conflict whose premonitory thunders had 
 been heard for a generation were the work of a little 
 junto of selfish politicians, such as Jeff Davis, Toombs, 
 and Benjamin on the one side, and Seward, Chase, and 
 Sumner on the other. In answer to this, Mr. Ehodes 
 is of opinion that the popular enthusiasm for secession 
 in the South quite outran the politicians : l u Davis 
 and Toombs are always classed among the conspirators, 
 yet Davis was in favor of delay ; and Toombs, in spite 
 of his vehement talk at Washington, could not keep 
 pace with the secession movement in his state. The 
 South Carolina radicals murmured that the people 
 were hampered by the politicians." 
 
 In commenting on Benjamin's speech of December 
 31st, the Cincinnati Commercial said : 2 "No one who 
 
 1 Vol. in, p. 276. 
 
 2 Quoted in Delta, January 16th. 
 
PEESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OP 1860 217 
 
 understands the brilliant powers of Benjamin can fail to 
 feel the deepest sorrow that a man of such splendid 
 gifts should have abused them so miserably in a cause 
 so hopeless. He might have saved Louisiana from the 
 desperate experiment of secession, and rolled back the 
 flood of Southern fanaticism from the banks of the 
 Mississippi, thus entitling himself to the gratitude of 
 the country, and adding to the lustre of his reputation 
 as an orator the brighter and better fame of enlarged 
 and elevated patriotism.' 7 To this the Delta replied : 
 " Before Mr. Benjamin had returned from California, 
 the secession movement had attained an irresistible 
 power in this state. It was not even known what 
 his views were, and, indeed, it was not until the 
 state convention had been ordered by the legis 
 lature, in view of secession, that a report that 
 he was about to make a Union speech was contra 
 dicted. The idea that Mr. Benjamin, or any other 
 statesman, politician, or orator could have arrested or 
 even checked this impulse grows out of that prevailing 
 delusion at the North . . . that the secession 
 movement originated with politicians. This is the 
 greatest error ever committed by a sagacious people. 
 There has been no excitement or movement in our 
 political history with which the politicians have had 
 so little and the people so much .to do. Men in high 
 places and honors are not eager or prompt to engage in 
 revolutions. It happens that all the prominent politi 
 cians engaged in the secession movement occupied the 
 highest places in the government of a great republic 
 of thirty-three states. In connecting themselves with 
 the secession of the South, they yield up honor and 
 places which would satisfy the highest civil ambition. 
 
218 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 They do so to embark on the uncertain and tempestuous 
 sea of revolution." 
 
 Thus calmly, in the middle of January, before the 
 state had formally seceded, the press talked of " revolu 
 tion" ! The history of the world has no similar page 
 to show, nothing that compares with this in cool audac 
 ity. As Americans,, and used to free speech and a 
 free press, we scarcely appreciate this, or realize that 
 in any other country the leaders who thus boldly an 
 nounced their determination to form a new government 
 would have been laid by the heels long before matters 
 reached such a crisis. But the preparations for seces 
 sion were allowed to proceed without interruption, 
 though sometimes a trifle hastened by an intimation 
 of possible interference ; and all the while the United 
 States mail went to states that had proclaimed or 
 were proclaiming themselves not united. At length 
 Louisiana joined her fortunes to those of secession 
 (January 26), but seventeen out of one hundred and 
 twenty members in the convention remaining steadfast 
 against immediate withdrawal from the Union. Her 
 senators and representatives (all save one of the latter) 
 had but awaited the command of their state to bid fare 
 well to Washington. Accordingly, on February 4th 
 Mr. Slidell sent up to be read by the Secretary of 
 the Senate the ordinance to dissolve " the union be 
 tween the state of Louisiana and the other states united 
 with her under the compact entitled the Constitution 
 of the United States of America," and delivered a 
 speech, in explanation of his course and of the course 
 of his state, which Mr. Blaine describes as " insolent." 
 
 Benjamin, too, made a speech, his real farewell to 
 the Senate, and the same partisan writer speaks of its 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 219 
 
 ' ' toiie of moderation as contrasted with the offensive 
 dictation of Mr. Slidell." 1 We could scarcely find a 
 better chance to point out the effect of Benjamin's 
 manner and delivery in softening what he had to say. 
 For his colleague's address, without any but the most 
 commonplace devices of oratory, is in its matter, one 
 would think, far less radical, severe, and offensive 
 than Benjamin's. Another contemporary who heard 
 this speech bears testimony of similar purport in a 
 passage which will serve our purpose well to quote at 
 some length. 
 
 General E. D. Keyes, 2 of the United States Army, 
 was at the time a young officer in Washington, and 
 used to visit Congress and report to General Scott the 
 doings and sayings of the politicians, having a sol 
 dier's innate distrust of all such, whether Northern or 
 Southern. He writes : 
 
 1 i When I heard Mr. Sumner and others proclaim 
 the superiority of the North in j urists, men of science, 
 historians, orators, merchants, mechanics, schools and 
 general intelligence, I felt disposed to stone them. 
 Every speech of the Northern senators had something 
 deprecatory in it, and that at a time when all the pow 
 ers of the government were in the hands of Southern 
 men. Notwithstanding iny hostility of sentiment, I 
 admitted the graceful dignity and splendid elocution 
 of the Southern senators, as well as the candid selfish 
 ness with which they told how long and grievously 
 they had groaned over the exactions of the North. I 
 heard the farewell speeches of Senators Jefferson Davis 
 of Mississippi and Benjamin of Louisiana. . . . 
 
 1 Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I, p. 249. 
 
 2 Fifty Years' Observation, p. 49. 
 
220 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Mr. Benjamin appeared to me essentially different 
 from Mr. Davis. Notwithstanding his incomparable 
 abilities and the fact that he became a secessionist with 
 great reluctance, he never excited animosity in me or 
 in any other Northern man so far as I am aware. 
 When I listened to his last speech in the Senate, I was 
 transported out of myself. Such verbal harmony I 
 had never heard before ! There was neither violence 
 in his action nor anger in his tone, but a pathos that 
 lulled my senses like an opiate that fills the mind with 
 delightful illusions. I was conscious that it was Sen 
 ator Benjamin who spoke, and that his themes were 
 mighty wrongs and desperate remedies ; but his words 
 I could not recite, nor can I yet recall them. Memory, 
 however, restores the illusive pleasure they left, which 
 is like the impression I retain of my youthful days. ' ' 
 
 And so Mr. Slidell, saying merely matter-of-fact 
 things that the situation rendered obvious, and saying 
 them without art, gave offense ; while Benjamin, say 
 ing things that were a fierce attack upon the honesty, 
 fairness, honor of his opponents, and saying them in 
 that piercingly melodious voice, without apparent 
 passion and with all the arts that rhetoric could teach 
 to make them effective as well as beautiful, gave no 
 offense, rather stirred his hostile listeners to mingled 
 admiration and regret. 
 
 This speech of February 4th ' is one that Louisianiaus 
 should read with especial pride, as a most able defense 
 of the state against the charges that had been brought 
 against her. So very effective is the argument that 
 Mr. Blaine, describing the tone as " moderate," yet 
 covers four pages in the attempt to answer it, while 
 
 1 Globe, 1860-61, Part I, p. 727, et seq. 
 
PKESEDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 221 
 
 contenting himself with a paragraph on Slidell's of 
 fensive utterance. The theme of the greater part of 
 the speech may be best stated by Benjamin himself : 
 
 " Sir, it has been urged on more than one occasion, 
 in the discussions here and elsewhere, that Louisiana 
 stands on an exceptional footing. It has been said that 
 whatever may be the rights of the states that were 
 original parties to the Constitution even granting 
 their right to resume, for sufficient cause, those re 
 stricted powers which they delegated to the general 
 government in trust for their own use and benefit 
 still Louisiana can have no such right, because she was 
 acquired by purchase. Gentlemen have not hesitated 
 to speak of the sovereign states formed out of the ter 
 ritory ceded by France as property bought with the 
 money of the United States, belonging to them as pur 
 chasers ; and although they have not carried their 
 doctrine to its legitimate results, I must conclude that 
 they also mean to assert, on the same principle, the 
 right of selling for a price that which for a price was 
 bought. 
 
 U I shall not pause to comment on this repulsive 
 dogma of a party which asserts the right of property 
 in free-born white men, in order to reach its cherished 
 object of destroying the right of property in slave-born 
 black men ; still less shall I detain the Senate in 
 pointing out how shadowy the distinction between the 
 condition of the servile African and that to which the 
 white freemen of my state would be reduced, if it in 
 deed be true that they are bound to this government 
 by ties that cannot be legitimately dissevered, without 
 the consent of that very majority which wields its 
 powers for their oppression. I simply deny the fact 
 
222 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 on which the argument is founded. I deny that the 
 province of Louisiana, or the people of Louisiana, 
 were ever conveyed to the United States for a price as 
 property that could be bought or sold at will. With 
 out entering into the details of the negotiation, the 
 archives of our State Department show the fact to be, 
 that although the domain, the public lands, and other 
 property of France in the ceded province, were con 
 veyed by absolute title to the United States, the 
 sovereignty was not conveyed otherwise than in trust. 
 . . . What is the express language of the treaty ? 
 i The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incor 
 porated in the Union of the United States and admitted 
 as soon as possible, according to the principles of the 
 Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the 
 rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the 
 United States ; and in the meantime they shall be 
 maintained and protected in the enjoyment of their lib 
 erty, property, and the religion which they profess. ' ' ' 
 
 The basis of his argument is thus strong historically 
 as against those who held that the states of the Loui 
 siana Purchase had less right than any of the original 
 thirteen to * l resume the powers delegated to the gen 
 eral government." We cannot follow him as he de 
 velops his defense ; but one fine outburst near the end 
 must be cited. 
 
 " We are told that . . . the South is in rebellion 
 without cause, and that her citizens are traitors. Ee- 
 bellion ! The very word is a confession ; an avowal 
 of tyranny, outrage, and oppression. It is taken from 
 the despot's code, and has no terror for other than 
 slavish souls. When, sir, did millions of people, as a 
 single man, rise in organized, deliberate, unimpas- 
 
PKESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 223 
 
 sioned rebellion against justice, truth, and honor ? 
 Well did a great Englishman exclaim on a similar 
 occasion : i You might as well tell me that they re 
 belled against the light of heaven ; that they rejected 
 the fruits of the earth. Men do not war against their 
 benefactors; they are not mad enough to repel the 
 instincts of self-preservation. I pronounce fearlessly 
 that no intelligent people ever rose, or ever will rise, 
 against a sincere, rational, and benevolent authority. 
 No people were ever born blind. Infatuation is not a 
 law of human nature. When there is a revolt by a 
 free people, with the common consent of all classes of 
 society, there must be a criminal against whom that 
 revolt is aimed. 7 
 
 " Traitors! Treason! Ay, sir, the people of the 
 South imitate and glory in just such treason as glowed 
 in the soul of Hampden ; just such treason as leaped in 
 living flame from the impassioned lips of Henry ; just 
 such treason as encircles with a sacred halo the undy 
 ing name of Washington ! " 
 
 With this last vigorous appeal of the eloquent cham 
 pion of the South, we close his career in the Senate of 
 the United States, a career that rendered his name 
 illustrious, that reflected honor on his state, and that 
 was long remembered as phenomenal. Senator Vest ' 
 relates that, years afterward, he asked an old reporter 
 of the Senate who was the best equipped member of 
 that body he had ever known. "By all odds," he 
 said, "Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana." 
 
 But before we undertake to follow him in the 
 stormy course of the next few years, let us for the sake 
 of simple justice to the honorable men who took part in 
 
 1 Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. 
 
224 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the Southern cause, and who conscientiously believed 
 they were right, try to get rid of the notion that there 
 was something monstrously wrong, some great crime 
 in the mere fact that the South simply did not want to 
 be any longer part and parcel of a government whose 
 policies and whose acts she did not relish. An unsuc 
 cessful revolution always needs all the apologies it can 
 procure at the hands of the historian j therefore I do 
 not fear misconception of my motives when I venture 
 to state that there was no " crime of '61" ; that there 
 was no conspiracy of Southern politicians to wreck the 
 Union, but a popular movement for separation too 
 powerful to be resisted ; and that it is the duty of the 
 New South, while recognizing fully and cheerfully that 
 the outcome was for the ultimate good of us all, to 
 protest against the habit of holding up Southern lead 
 ers as horrible examples. The war settled vexed ques 
 tions, and in the best way, forever ; the Union was not 
 made to be broken, for 
 
 ' ' Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky, 
 Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die ! " 
 
 But let us not be unjust to the civil leaders of the 
 South any more than to those who led her marvelous 
 armies. 
 
CHAPTEE IX 
 
 ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND SECRETARY OF WAR 
 
 FROM Washington, Benjamin, a little apprehen 
 sive that he might be arrested if he lingered at the 
 capital, hastened back to his home. Without his own 
 consent, he had already been mentioned as a delegate to 
 the Montgomery Convention of the seceded states, but 
 received only a scattering vote, not being seriously 
 considered as a candidate. 1 He had not long been at 
 home before a country newspaper, 2 perhaps unaware of 
 the fact that Benjamin was constitutionally ineligible 
 as being of foreign birth, had hoisted on its front page 
 a banner proclaiming its choice for executive officers 
 of the yet unborn Confederacy : For President, Eobert 
 Toombs, of Georgia ; for Vice-President, J. P. Benja 
 min, of Louisiana. Can one fancy a man of Benjamin's 
 energy content to subside into a position of such hope 
 less inaction as that of the Vice-President ? But he 
 would not have been eligible, even if he had been 
 willing to accept such an office. At first, on his re 
 turn, he devoted himself to private affairs ; to setting 
 in order the business from which he knew he would 
 soon be called. His reputation for fluency of speech 
 brought him once more before the citizens of New Or 
 leans, when, on the 22d of February, 1861, he made his 
 last public address there ; and in it, we are glad to say, 
 
 1 True Delta, Jan. 30, 31. 
 
 2 Bastrop Weekly Dispatch, quoted in Delta, Feb. 21. 
 
226 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 there is no cheap flattery of the people's vanity, such 
 as too many orators were then indulging in, but the 
 truth as he saw it. A memorable occasion it was to 
 all who know the story of Louisiana's sons in the great 
 battles that were soon to follow. For on this anni 
 versary of Washington's birth, the Washington Ar 
 tillery, its laurels yet unwon, was to receive a flag on 
 behalf of the ladies of New Orleans, who had made it. 
 As Mr. Benjamin, now no longer a senator of the 
 United States, delivered his address to the proud 
 young soldiers, and conjured them to defend this flag 
 with the courage befitting gallant men, he did not for 
 get in this hour of easy gratulation to emphasize the 
 fact that they would have need of all their courage 
 in the coming war. "I speak, gentlemen," he said, 
 ' ' in the belief that our independence is not to be main 
 tained without the shedding of our blood. I know 
 that the conviction is not shared by others. Heaven 
 grant that I may prove mistaken. Yet fearful as is the 
 ordeal, and much as war is to be deplored, it is not 
 the unmixed evil which many consider it to be." * 
 
 It seems a work of supererogation, and fatuously 
 wearisome withal, to continue to pile up evidence that 
 Benjamin knew there was going to be war. But we 
 must remember, in the first place, how difficult it is for 
 us to divest ourselves of the knowledge of the event. 
 We know there was a war ; but in February, 1861, nay, 
 even in March and April, there were many in each 
 section who thought there would be none. There were 
 many braggarts, on each side, who with brazen vocifer- 
 ousness assured their people that the other side would 
 not dare fight. It is just another exhibition of Southern 
 
 1 Delta, Feb. 24 ; cf . March 26. 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 227 
 
 bluster, intended to scare us into more abject submis 
 sion, said some at the North. The cowardly Yankees 
 won't fight, and if they dare do so, one gallant gentle 
 man is a match for five or six of the low-born counter- 
 juinpers, said many at the South. And the North, in 
 the flush of victory, has forgotten these false prophets 
 in her own household. The South, however, in the 
 bitterness of defeat, has not forgotten that siren voices 
 sang so false and flattering a song to her. And the 
 result has been rather indiscriminate condemnation of 
 all the politicians alike. Among them all, I fancy, 
 Alexander Stephens is alone unharmed by this hasty 
 judgment. Therefore it seems somewhat needful, even 
 at the risk of appearing tedious, to show that Benjamin, 
 at least, neither deceived his people nor was deceived 
 himself. 
 
 In the midst of all this political excitement the 
 course of life went on much as usual for Benjamin's 
 sisters in the home in Nashville Avenue. Mrs. Levy 
 could perceive that " J. P." was deeply interested in 
 and excited by the situation. She must have felt sure 
 that some part, and that no inconspicuous one, in the 
 new government would fall to him ; but he kept his 
 own counsel for the present, came and went as of old, 
 though less frequently at this busy time, and was as 
 cheerful and unconcerned as if there were ample assur 
 ance of peace and prosperity. At length, just after the 
 address to the Washington Artillery, his sisters no 
 ticed him packing his belongings as if for a prolonged 
 journey. When all was ready, he told them that he 
 had been called to Montgomery to consult with Mr. 
 Davis, and that he anticipated some service under the 
 new government that would probably so occupy his 
 
228 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 time as to make it impossible for him to see much of 
 them. It was known that Montgomery would hardly 
 continue to be the capital of the Confederacy after the 
 expected secession of Virginia ; and so he did not wish 
 them to move there. He explained that, in any event, 
 his means were certain to be curtailed for a time, but 
 provided amply for their present needs. They might, 
 if they wished, leave New Orleans ; but he advised 
 against it, considering the city absolutely secure against 
 attack, and adding that it would be easier for him to 
 care for them and to communicate with them there 
 than in some place where they had no friends. And 
 so, bidding all an affectionate farewell, with hope of 
 returning, if but for a brief visit now and then, he 
 left them. It was the last time they ever saw him. 
 For he was too busy to return in the first days of the 
 Confederacy ; and then it so turned out within little 
 more than a year that New Orleans would not have 
 given cordial greeting to her great lawyer, while after 
 ward came the years of desperation when it was im 
 possible for him to leave Eichmond but as a fugitive 
 from the land. 
 
 Mrs. Levy, however, was a capable woman, and not 
 afraid of being left to hold her own in New Orleans. 
 Her brother had given her sufficient money for com 
 fort, if not for luxury, and would supply more as 
 necessity arose from time to time. She could manage 
 and practice economy if need be. No doubt she found 
 the truth of what Mrs. Benjamin wrote when her hus 
 band preached more thrift : : " Oh, talk not to me of 
 economy ! it is so fatiguing. " But she did not say so ; 
 and she and her daughter and sister weathered the 
 storm in New Orleans as long as they were allowed to 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 229 
 
 keep the roof over their heads. We shall catch an 
 other glimpse of the household when that city is lost 
 to the Confederacy. 
 
 The Delta of February 26th announced Benjamin's 
 nomination as Attorney-General of the Confederacy. 
 We can agree with the editor that it was, seemingly, a 
 most excellent choice on the part of Mr. Davis ; as a 
 matter of fact, however, it was a waste of good material. 
 The President, long used to the customs of political pa 
 tronage at Washington, and now doubly anxious to 
 attach to his government as many of the states as 
 possible, while pacifying as many of his political op 
 ponents as possible, selected his first cabinet rather 
 with a view to political effect than to executive 
 efficiency. The men chosen were not incapable ; but 
 it may be doubted if any one of them really fitted the 
 executive department over which he was called to 
 preside at a time when only peculiar fitness and talent 
 could achieve success ; and it is absolutely certain that 
 several of them could not work in harmony with the 
 President or with one another as an advisory council. 
 Looking at this body of advisers, manifestly ill at ease 
 in one another's society and representing widely differ 
 ent political views on all but the cardinal point of 
 secession, one is reminded of the good Washington's un 
 happy experiment, the cabinet in which political differ 
 ences, wicked and dangerous to the peace of America, 
 were completely ignored. Mr. Davis, in his Else and 
 Fall, gives a brief statement of his reasons for the 
 selections he made. Not one of those chosen could 
 have been called a close friend, or even a con 
 spicuous political ally of the President. It is ap 
 parent that he was solicitous to secure men of re- 
 
230 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 spectable ability, but above all to distribute the 
 cabinet positions as equitably as might be among 
 the states and the political factious. In this he was 
 but following the precedent often set in the United 
 States Lincoln's first cabinet was so composed and 
 followed with safety j but such a composite group, 
 perhaps only useless and powerless to harm when 
 there was no occasion for more than ordinary efficiency, 
 could work great injury at a time like the present. 
 Though all of its members were men of some ability, 
 though most of them had had considerable experience 
 in legislation, not one had had any experience of ex 
 ecutive affairs j they were all more used to arguing a 
 case or debating a bill than to carrying out executive 
 plans with promptness and decision. 
 
 The composition of the cabinet, then, was not for 
 tunate. It was a pity to see a man of such capacity as 
 Benjamin wasting his time in the child's play of 
 Attorney -General to a government that scarcely had 
 any courts. Beyond giving an occasional opinion to 
 some executive officer, a matter of minutes to so ready 
 a man, he was idle, so far as the duties of his own 
 almost superfluous department are concerned : Inter 
 arma silent leges. We shall therefore have no official 
 action of moment to record. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin was thus frequently called upon by 
 the President to undertake services sometimes ap 
 parently trifling, but requiring tact and delicacy. It 
 fell to his lot to receive and entertain visitors with 
 whom there was nothing else to do, inquisitive for 
 eigners, or importunate office-seekers. There were 
 plenty of the latter at Montgomery as well as at 
 Washington ; one recalls Lincoln's whimsical remark, 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 231 
 
 tliat lie felt like a man letting lodgings at one end of 
 his house while the other was on fire. And so Mr. 
 Davis was dogged by relentless would-be generals who 
 had innumerable hosts of gallant and totally un 
 equipped and undisciplined soldiers to offer ; or in 
 ventors who had new weapons of destruction. Ben 
 jamin, being always affable and a good conversational 
 ist, probably succeeded better in disposing of these 
 people without offense than his more peremptory chief ; 
 besides he was generally accessible, and could spare 
 more time than other prominent members of the gov 
 ernment. 
 
 It is interesting to compare the impression he made 
 upon two of the rather notable visitors to Montgomery, 
 both of whom came with intent to take notes and 
 print. Mr. W. H. Eussell, the correspondent of the 
 London Times, saw various members of the Confederate 
 government on May 9th, 1 and was seemingly more 
 favorably impressed by Benjamin than by any one else ; 
 he had more of the manner and bearing of a man 
 of the world. And yet Eussell obviously has some 
 distrust of the "short, stout man, with a full face, 
 olive-colored, and most decidedly Jewish features, 
 with the brightest black eyes, one of which is some 
 what diverse from the other, and a brisk, lively, agree 
 able manner, combined with much vivacity of speech, 
 and quickness of utterance. ' ' He finds l ' Mr. Benj amiu 
 . . . the most open, frank, and cordial of the Con 
 federates." But he rather hints that frankness and 
 cordiality too closely border on indiscretion in speech, 
 since, " in a few seconds he was telling me all about 
 the course of government with respect to privateers 
 
 1 Diary, Vol. II, pp. 252-256. 
 
232 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 and letters of marque and reprisal, in order probably 
 to ascertain what were our views in England on the 
 subject " which, in fact, he did, without telling Mr. 
 Eussell any more than he could have got out of any 
 newspaper. 
 
 The other observer of the time, though not so finished 
 a writer as the English correspondent, is really one of 
 the most entertaining and useful of those who have left a 
 record of the impression made by current events in the 
 Confederacy. Mr. J. B. Jones, author of A Rebel War 
 ClerWs Diary, is very honest, devotedly loyal to the 
 South, and full of shrewdness ; but he is likewise 
 narrow-minded, and intensely conceited in that seem 
 ingly modest way which affects extreme humility. It 
 is easy to allow the proper discount in his criticism of 
 the leaders, and so discounted his comments are very 
 valuable. He came to Montgomery, as he frankly 
 tells us, with the deliberate purpose of getting some 
 subordinate position in an important department, 
 where his facilities for observation might be good, and 
 of publishing the results of this microscopic study of 
 the Confederacy in book form when the war was over. 
 If the good man did not take himself quite so seriously, 
 there would be something almost uncanny about this 
 plan and the deliberateness with which it was carried 
 out. 
 
 At first Jones's comments are very favorable to 
 Mr. Benjamin ; but something seems to have turned 
 him against the Jewish lawyer, whose religion, or race, 
 rankles in the writer's breast. The tendency to flat 
 tery on Mr. Benjamin's part, and the ease with which 
 his subject succumbed, is amusingly manifested in this 
 passage, under date of May 21, 1861, at Montgomery : 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 233 
 
 "I ani necessarily making many new acquaintances, 
 and quite a number recognize me by my books which 
 they have read. Among this class is Mr. BeDJamin, 
 the minister of justice, who, to-day, informed me that 
 he and Senator Bayard had been interested, at Wash 
 ington, in my i Story of Disunion. 7 " 
 
 Events were hastening on, during this time of com 
 parative inactivity for Mr. Benjamin, with a speed 
 that no Congressional action could longer hope to 
 arrest. Three weeks before Lincoln, the untried West 
 erner at whose presumptive ignorance or radicalism 
 the cultured East trembled, could be installed in office, 
 the Confederates had inaugurated their President and 
 Vice-President, both men of national prominence. At 
 once, too, the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy, 
 which Stephens ' pronounced as able and conservative 
 a body as he was ever associated with, had proceeded 
 to pass the necessary measures not only for civil organ 
 ization but also for military preparation in the face of 
 the great war that their President anticipated. There 
 has long been much dispute what have they not dis 
 puted about I among Confederate writers as to whether 
 the Executive was energetic enough in pushing these 
 preparations. One fairly moderate example may be 
 referred to among the published articles Mr. Ehett, in 
 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.* Another, not in 
 print, has come to my notice recently, and may be 
 cited as a typical illustration of the freakish injustice 
 of memory and gossip. 
 
 Judge D. M. Shelby, of the United States Circuit 
 
 'See War Between the States, Vol. II, p. 325; Johnston and 
 Browne, pp. 392, 414. 
 Vol. I, p. 108. 
 
234 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Court, and formerly a partner of Leroy P. Walker, 
 first Secretary of War under the Confederacy, relates * 
 an interesting story in regard to the views of the cabi 
 net and of Mr. Davis before the outbreak of hostilities. 
 Mr. Walker was in the old Exchange Hotel, at Mont 
 gomery, one day, and pointed out to Judge Shelby the 
 room near the parlor in which the first Confederate 
 council was held, indicating even the relative positions 
 of the ministers and the President. " At that time," 
 said Mr. Walker, "I, like everybody else, believed 
 there would be no war. In fact, I had gone about 
 the state advising people to secede, and promising to 
 wipe up with my pocket-handkerchief all the blood 
 that would be shed. When this cabinet meeting was 
 held, there was only one man there who had any sense, 
 and that man was Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin proposed 
 that the government purchase as much cotton as it 
 could hold, at least 100,000 bales, and ship it at once 
 to England. With the proceeds of a part of it he 
 advised the immediate purchase of at least 150,000 
 stand of small arms, and guns and munitions in corre 
 sponding amounts I forget the exact figures. The 
 residue of the cotton was to be held as a basis for 
 credit. For, said Benjamin, we are entering on a con 
 test that must be long and costly. All the rest of us 
 fairly ridiculed the idea of a serious war. Well, you 
 know what happened." 
 
 Now there is no reason to question that Mr. Walker 
 was honestly relating things as he remembered them ; 
 but this conversation took place many years after the 
 events to which it referred. As a consequence, some of 
 
 1 Conversation with the writer. 
 
ATTORNEY-GENERAL 235 
 
 the statements are undoubtedly correct, others may be 
 correct, and some are almost as certainly incorrect. 
 There is no question about the " pocket-handkerchief " 
 speeches, for example, of which Mr. Walker has the 
 courage to feel a little ashamed. There is every proba 
 bility that Benjamin, whose opinion we know from 
 other sources, and who was perhaps more familiar 
 than the rest with the great cotton trade, did present 
 some such scheme as that suggested. The plan, too, 
 if so presented, was likely elaborated with all of 
 that skill at discounting the future that had enabled 
 Benjamin to build enchanting air castles out of 
 Tehuantepec. It is improbable that a course of action 
 so highly desirable and prudent was rejected by all of 
 the men present at that meeting for the reason sug 
 gested by Mr. Walker. They rejected it, no doubt, 
 but for other and sufficient reasons, as I think, and 
 probably not without regret. Mr. Davis, like Ben 
 jamin, felt certain that there would be war ; and 
 though he, as well as everybody else on both sides, 
 failed to conceive of the magnitude and desperation 
 of the contest, he had the professional soldier's instinct 
 to lead him to desire as much as he could get in the 
 way of military equipment. He would not have re 
 jected Benjamin's suggestion if it had been practicable. 
 We can only guess, of course, at the reason for the 
 failure to act out some such policy on the part of the 
 Confederate government ; but it seems to me decidedly 
 unfair to make a guess that exalts Benjamin at the 
 expense of others, his associates, in a way that he 
 would never have approved. The reasonable and suf 
 ficient ground for the rejection of this plan, if such a 
 plan was proposed by Benjamin, is given by Captain 
 
236 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Bulloch. 1 The South had no shipping of her own ; as 
 soon as hostilities became imminent, neutral traders 
 and those from Northern ports made haste to load 
 and get away from Southern ports, lest they be seized. 
 For two months prior to the firing on Sumter, accord 
 ing to Captain Bulloch' s narrative, it would have been 
 barely possible to get together enough vessels to carry 
 out any considerable quantity of cotton on govern 
 ment account ; and after that fatal shot, the vessels in 
 Confederate harbors falling into the hands of the au 
 thorities were but a handful. 
 
 In an agricultural nation undertaking a great war 
 under modern conditions, innumerable things, and 
 immense quantities of them, had to be provided. 
 Considering the energy and the pertinacity with which 
 they carried on the government and the war after 
 ward, it would require overwhelming proofs to con 
 vince us that the Confederate authorities did not make 
 every effort they knew how to have the South in readi 
 ness in the interval before Fort Sumter fell. When 
 that event came, perhaps by a hasty action for which 
 the cabinet was not to blame, 2 they were not fully pre 
 pared ; yet the wonder is not that they had accom 
 plished so little, but so very much, in the way of 
 preparation. And they acted with promptness so 
 soon as the first blow was struck. For reasons stated 
 by Mr. Davis in his book, and which seem valid 
 enough, the Confederate government hastened to move 
 to Richmond as soon as Virginia seceded. On the 
 way there the President, Mr. Benjamin, and other 
 members of the government addressed the people in 
 
 1 Secret Service of the Confederacy, Vol. I, p. 20, et sea. 
 8 See Rhodes, Vol. Ill, p. 351. 
 
ATTOBNEY-GENEKAL 237 
 
 speeches of optimistic tone, according to the meagre 
 press dispatches of the day, promising vigorous action 
 u to expel the invader from our soil. 7 ' 
 
 During the weeks of feverish mustering of troops 
 that followed, Benjamin had little to do; his legal 
 opinion was sometimes called for on the constitution 
 ality of acts of the executive departments. But in 
 the stress of war it soon became manifest that nice 
 ties of legal discrimination must be swept aside. 
 Whether the proposed act were quite regular or not, it 
 must be performed ; there must be no delay. In 
 this interval when the lawyer found little need for his 
 services, the other qualities of the man were revealed 
 to Mr. Davis. The ever -watchful Jones noticed very 
 soon that Benjamin was particularly in the President's 
 good graces. Thus when the anxious group of high 
 officials waited about the War Department telegraph 
 office on the night of July 21st, he reports 1 that it 
 is Mr. Benjamin who goes to Mrs. Davis at the Spotts- 
 wood Hotel and returns with a soul-gladdening mes 
 sage from her husband on the battle-field of the first 
 Manassas. It is Benjamin, too, who repeats the in 
 spiring news to the reporters from memory, while 
 his " face glowed something like Daniel Webster's 
 after taking a pint of brandy." It is he, too, who 
 brings a special verbal message from the President to 
 the Secretary of War about two Northern gentlemen 
 who had come within the Confederate lines at Manas 
 sas to look for the body of Colonel Cameron, and not 
 under a flag of truce lest this should be construed into 
 a recognition of the l i rebels. ' 7 And then (August 10), 
 "Mr. Benjamin is a frequent visitor at the depart- 
 
 Vol. I, pp. 64, 68, 71. 
 
238 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ment, and is very sociable ; some intimations have been 
 thrown out that he aspires to become, some day, Sec 
 retary of War. Mr. Benjamin, unquestionably, will 
 have great influence with the President, for he has 
 studied his character most carefully. He will be fa 
 miliar not only with his likes, but especially with his 
 ' dislikes.' " 
 
 With due allowance for this observer's anti-Semitic 
 squint, and consequent suspicion of Benjamin, I should 
 fancy there was truth in his suggestion that the lat 
 ter had made a study of the President's character, 
 and exerted himself to win favor. Whatever may be 
 said of Jefferson Davis' s abilities, statesmanship, de 
 votion to public duty, and wealth of private virtues, 
 he possessed some traits which were the very manifes 
 tation of the sincerity and honesty of the man, but 
 which brought upon him much superficial and unde 
 served censure. Take him all in all, it is extremely 
 doubtful if the Confederacy could have found a leader 
 more suitably endowed for the military dictatorship to 
 which its government must tend. The necessities of 
 the situation constrained Davis to be autocratic, 1 just 
 as similar conditions constrained Lincoln to be simi 
 larly autocratic. It was essential that colleagues in the 
 government and officers in the army, should be abso 
 lutely subordinate and obedient to the Executive. 
 
 Again a little reflection will plainly show that of 
 both sides this is equally true ; and it is not difficult 
 to parallel Joseph E. Johnston with McClellan, or Lee 
 with Grant, to show that, with the first pair, the prime 
 cause of trouble was disagreement with the Executive, 
 while with the second the secret of success was being 
 
 1 But see below, Chapter XIII. 
 
ATTORNEY GENERAL 239 
 
 in harmony. Of course, such a parallel is misleading 
 if blindly followed ; we do not mean to compare the 
 men named in any way but with regard to their rela 
 tions with the Presidents. Not only did Mr. Davis 
 find it necessary, therefore, to rule with vigor or not 
 rule at all, but his military education and predilec 
 tions made the habit of command second nature. He 
 was really of most kind disposition, but extremely re 
 served and severe of manner. I think the unprejudiced 
 historian must pronounce Mr. Davis superior to any 
 member of his cabinet in the essential qualities needed 
 for his difficult position ; but some of them did not 
 think thus, and resented firm control, which was in 
 dispensable, as capricious and even haughty dictation. 
 But a few weeks of the intimate and difficult rela 
 tions of the cabinet officers to the President were 
 needed to develop this opinion in recalcitrant or in 
 subordinate members of the new government. It was 
 natural, therefore, that Benjamin's urbanity, and his 
 thorough realization of the proper relations of a cabinet 
 officer to his chief, should have won Mr. Davis' s grati 
 tude and favor, while his unusual abilities soon like 
 wise gained the confidence of the President. Bound 
 up, heart and soul, in what people reverently called 
 " the cause," Mr. Benjamin was quite willing to serve 
 loyally in any sort of capacity ; willing to defer 
 to the opinion of his leader for the good of that cause. 
 He did not always agree with Mr. Davis ; but when 
 his opinion was overruled, he neither lost his temper 
 and resigned his post, nor nursed injured pride in 
 sulky and reluctant obedience. His advice was shrewd 
 and prudent, urged with cogency of reasoning and 
 tact. He was always cheerful, generally sanguine, 
 
240 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 capable of ail amazing amount of hard work, method 
 ical and prompt. It is not to be wondered at, there 
 fore, that Mr. Davis found him a most useful member 
 of the official family, and thought him fitted for almost 
 any post in it. 
 
 The battle of Bull Bun by itself was sufficient to 
 demonstrate that there would be more blood shed than 
 many handkerchiefs could wipe up. Secretary Walker 
 found himself unequal to the strain imposed by his 
 duties, overwhelmed by the mass of unfamiliar de 
 tail, and restive under the inevitable complaints and 
 the bickering of officers. Early in the fall there 
 began to be rumors that he would retire, and that 
 Benjamin would succeed him. And on September 
 17th, Walker having resigned, Benjamin was officially 
 appointed Secretary of War, ad interim, acting also as 
 Attorney-General until November 15th. 1 
 
 Jones, now to have close relations with the new 
 secretary, remarks on September 16th : a " Mr. Benja 
 min's hitherto perennial smile faded almost away as 
 he realized the fact that he was now the most impor 
 tant member of the cabinet. He well knew how ardu 
 ous the duties were ; but then he was in robust health, 
 and capable of any amount of labor." And he adds : 
 " It seems, after all, that Mr. Benjamin is only acting 
 Secretary of War, until the President can fix upon an 
 other. Can that be the reason his smile has faded 
 almost away? But the President will appoint him. 
 Mr. Benjamin will please him ; he knows how to do 
 it." And the New Orleans Delta* though also rather 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. I, pp. 614, 957. 
 8 Vol I, p. 79. 
 8 Sept. 28. 
 
ATTOBNEY-GENEBAL 241 
 
 prejudiced against Mr. Benjamin, had a letter from 
 its correspondent at Bichmond a week later, saying : 
 "The good effects of his presence in the War Depart 
 ment are already exhibited in his administration as 
 compared with that of his predecessor. The duties of 
 the War Department are, of course, excessively ardu 
 ous and unremittant ;' but Mr. Benjamin manages to 
 fulfil them all without exciting complaints of delay. 
 . . . He determines every question submitted to him 
 with the promptness and the accuracy characteristic 
 of his mind, while at the same time he exhibits ad 
 ministrative capacity of a high order and great organ 
 izing talents.' 7 
 
 There can be no question of Benjamin's tireless in 
 dustry, or of the good results to be anticipated from 
 habits of precision and systematic care in the war 
 office. Probably at no time during his life, with the 
 possible exception of the first years of trial in New 
 Orleans, had he worked so hard. Various accounts 
 are given of the hours he kept at his desk ; one would 
 fancy that he toiled from early morn till midnight, day 
 in and day out, with not even time for meals ; but the 
 fact is that Benjamin was far too sensible to waste his 
 energies, and the amount of work he managed to per 
 form is far more to the point than the time he took to 
 do it. Under his supervision the department was 
 thoroughly organized for efficient service at headquar 
 ters. The immense masses of correspondence, which 
 had formerly been allowed to accumulate till confusion 
 and despair reigned, were disposed of on the day of 
 their receipt, if that were humanly possible. Long let 
 ters, that consumed the time of the secretary in the 
 writing and of his clerks in the copying, were eschewed ; 
 
242 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 if such replies could not be avoided, and the matters 
 were important, telegraphic answers at least were sent 
 at once. Now every one was assigned his duty, and the 
 secretary expected him to perform that duty, By 
 these simple means he managed to save himself fruit 
 less drudgery, while leaving more time for the multi 
 farious larger problems that might and must quite 
 properly engage the attention of a minister. But he 
 saw to it that every letter or communication, no mat 
 ter how silly, received some sort of answer. Thus, to 
 a foolish attorney for certain "bold and daring spirits 
 on our western border," who inquired concerning the 
 legal possibilities of getting letters of marque to prey 
 upon the enemy's commerce on the Ohio Eiver, the 
 secretary replied : 1 " In regard to the project of Mr. 
 Crawford and other 'bold and daring spirits/ I can 
 only say that privateering is of necessity, by the laws 
 of Congress as well as of nations, confined to the high 
 seas, and this service is, moreover, not under the charge 
 of this department." 
 
 The routine work of the War Department, however, 
 is not of sufficient interest or importance to tempt us 
 into extended notice of it. Moreover, the President 
 devoted much of his time and attention to the larger 
 problems of strategy, so that these, which might repay 
 study, concern the biographer of Mr. Benjamin very 
 little. Neither will it suit us to chronicle the still un 
 settled disputes that arose between the government and 
 its generals in the field ; or rather, we must chronicle, 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. I, p. 669. Cf. p. 1008, for re 
 fusal to organize guerrilla companies, which " are not recognized as 
 part of the military organization of the Confederate States, and 
 cannot be authorized by this department." 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 243 
 
 but not discuss them. With Beauregard, and especially 
 with Joseph E. Johnston, Mr. Davis had quarrels, in 
 which there was some right on each side, and which 
 each side has fought out in print in a fashion that 
 quite relieves us of that unpleasant task. Suffice it to 
 say that Benjamin supported Mr. Davis. But one of 
 these disputes with officers of the army, since it con 
 cerns a general of such insignificance that we may fear 
 lessly suppress his name, will serve to illustrate both 
 the difficulty of dealing with these absurdly sensitive 
 gentlemen, and one of Benjamin's faults as Secretary 
 of War. 
 
 This incident brings out the insolent wrath of a jeal 
 ous brigadier-general, who had expected to be made 
 a major-general, and who resigned in a huff when 
 he failed of this. He wrote 1 at some length to the 
 Secretary of War, paying a glowing tribute to himself, 
 and stating that although he had been for months at 
 the front, almost every mail brought news of his being 
 overslaughed by some officer whom he " ranked in the 
 old service" of the United States ; that the last straw 
 had come in the appointment as major-general of "a 
 New York office-holder," and that he would "not con 
 descend to submit any longer to the insults and indig 
 nities of the Executive." To this Benjamin replied 
 with j ustice, but without tact : " It is due to self- 
 respect that I should remark on the impropriety of 
 your using this department as a channel for conveying 
 disrespectful and insulting comments on the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army and the chief magistrate 
 of the Confederacy. His sole offense, according to 
 the statements of your letter, consists in not selecting 
 
 1 Correspondence in the papers, as True Delta, Nov. 1 and 6. 
 
244 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 you to be a major-general, for there is no question 
 of promotion involved in the appointment of major- 
 generals. The law expressly vests in him the power 
 to choose officers to command brigades and divisions, 
 and it is no disparagement to any officer, whatever 
 may have been his services, that the President prefers 
 another as a division commander. "Your statement, 
 therefore, that you have been overslaughed, and that 
 you have been subjected 'to the insults and indig 
 nities ' of the Executive, is based on a total misappre 
 hension of his duties and your rights, according to the 
 laws which govern the army. Your communication 
 has been submitted to the President, and, by his direc 
 tion, your resignation has been accepted." 
 
 Of this officer's merit and capacities we know, and 
 care very little ; the one preferred to him did not, 
 indeed, prove himself very deserving. But Benjamin's 
 reply was ill-advised. Its tone is very severe, how 
 ever justly so. And it gave the indignant officer a 
 chance to write another letter, which he did. One is 
 reminded of Mrs. Da vis's comment on the secretary : * 
 "Each time that he had an angry contest with any of 
 his colleagues, some one was sure to say : i How can 
 any one get provoked with Mr. Benjamin? he is so 
 gentle and courteous.' In fact the truth was that 
 Mr. Benjamin's courtesy in argument was like the 
 salute of the duelist to his antagonist whom he in 
 tends to kill if possible. He was master of the art of 
 inductive reasoning, and when he had smilingly estab 
 lished his point he dealt the coup de grace with a fierce 
 joy which his antagonist fully appreciated and re 
 sented. I never knew him in those days to be very 
 
 1 Letter in Lawley MS. t June 8, 1898. 
 
ATTOBNEY-GENEBAL 245 
 
 much in earnest without infuriating his antagonist 
 beyond measure. Mr. Slidell, who loved him like a 
 brother, once said to Mr. Davis, * When I do not agree 
 with Benjamin, I will not let him talk to me j he irri 
 tates me so by his debonair ways.' " He did not 
 forget or lay aside the training and habits of the bar 
 and the Senate when acting as Secretary of War, and 
 could not forego the delightful chance to make re 
 marks that, however just and convincing, were sarcastic 
 and often exasperating. Much of this comment has 
 not been preserved save in the gossip of the time, and 
 therefore we may not record it as of reliable authority ; 
 but it seems to me that there is a touch of contemptu 
 ous sarcasm even in a reply which he submitted to a 
 resolution of Congress asking what means were needed 
 for the prosecution of the war. We need, he says, 1 
 350,000 additional men, 500,000 rifles, over 1,000 pieces 
 of field artillery, 2,000 tons of powder, and $200,- 
 000,000; and since all these things are beyond our 
 reach, he presumes Congress wants to know what is 
 practicable : " If I am right in this conclusion, then I 
 respectfully answer that the great deficiency under 
 which we suffer is the want of small arms and powder. 
 . . . In a word, what we need is the ' material ' of 
 war. 77 
 
 Always indifferent to the clamors of the press, and 
 now feeling perfectly secure in the support of the Presi 
 dent, Benjamin doubtless made himself even more un 
 popular than his necessarily unpopular duties required. 
 Jones, scenting disaster to the Confederate arms, de 
 clares in January, 1862, 2 " There is no entente cordiale 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. I, p. 970. 
 'Vol. I, p. 103. 
 
246 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 between Mr. Benjamin and any of our best generals." 
 With such a feeling abroad against him, whether justi 
 fied or not, his usefulness in his present position would 
 be at an end unless some signal victory in the field 
 should restore public confidence. But the reports of 
 the Secretary of War showed conditions to be any 
 thing but reassuring. With scarcely enough inferior 
 and antiquated muskets on hand to fit out an additional 
 regiment, he is badgered by state governors and officers 
 of the army to supply arms. What a sigh of relief when 
 the precious cargo of the Gladiator,* containing a few 
 thousand stand of arms, is safely brought through the 
 blockade, having been reshipped at Nassau on several 
 smaller and swifter vessels that might outrun the 
 active Yankee gunboats. For nearly three months, 
 Benjamin says, we have been waiting for these Enfield 
 rifles, have promised them to eager soldiers, and could 
 make use of several hundred thousand more. We 
 vigorously set about manufacturing muskets, guns, 
 powder, and with some success, considering the dearth 
 of mechanics and of necessary materials. We appoint, 
 on the secretary's recommendation, special officers to 
 investigate the supplies of nitre and saltpetre in the 
 Confederacy ; to suggest means of supplementing and 
 improving them. But we must already, before the 
 first half-year of the blockade is over, offer blockade- 
 runners a profit of fifty per centum over the cost of 
 the articles specially named, with reimbursement of 
 all charges for " freight, drayage, package, and cost 
 of loading at the port of departure. . . . For 
 freight you will be allowed twice the current rates of 
 freight from the port of loading to the port of Havana. 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. I, pp. 800, 985, etc. 
 
ATTOKNEY-GENEBAL 247 
 
 . . . Payment to be made to you on arrival and 
 delivery of cargo in a Confederate port in good order, 
 . in cotton at current market prices." And in 
 the list of articles for which these extraordinary sums 
 will be paid, one finds not only arms and munitions of 
 various kinds but such things as bar steel, nitric acid, 
 sulphuric acid, and even i i leather suitable for harness 
 and bridles." One heartily sympathizes with the diffi 
 culties and the perplexities of the Secretary of War : 
 
 11 When it is considered that the government of the 
 United States with all its accumulation of arms for 
 half a century, and all its workshops and arsenals, 
 public and private, and its untrammeled intercourse 
 with foreign nations has recently been compelled to 
 disband a number of cavalry regiments on account of 
 the difficulty of arming them, and has been driven to 
 the necessity of making purchases of arms in Europe 
 in very large quantities, and of saltpetre by thousands 
 of tons, some faint idea may be formed of the diffi 
 culties against which this department has been and is 
 now struggling in the effort to furnish arms and muni 
 tions for our troops. The difficulty is not in the want 
 of legislation. Laws cannot suddenly convert farmers 
 into gunsmiths. Our people are not artisans, except 
 to a very limited degree. In the very armory here at 
 Eichmond the production could be greatly increased 
 if skilled labor could be procured. In the absence of 
 home manufactures no recourse remains but importa 
 tion, and with our commerce substantially at an end 
 with foreign nations the means of importation are 
 limited." ' 
 
 Meanwhile the winter was passing away with noth- 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. 1, pp. 760, 768, 790-797, 820, 
 955-962, 970, 988, et seq. 
 
248 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ing but the most blessed inactivity, for the most part, 
 on the Federal side. Joseph E. Johnston, with in 
 ferior forces and " Quaker" guns, made of logs, man 
 aged to keep a menacing front at Manassas. McClellau 
 accumulated and drilled the largest fighting machine 
 the world had seen since the Crusades, but it was so 
 huge that he feared to use it. Meanwhile, too, the 
 Secretary of War for the Confederacy, straining every 
 nerve to protect the long frontier and the three 
 thousand miles of coast with half a hundred points 
 subject to attack, was pestered with trifling things. 
 Thus there was endless trouble about granting pass 
 ports to those desiring to go within the Federal lines. 
 At first Benjamin, following his inclination, was 
 liberal in showing this courtesy to "alien enemies." 
 But there were grave political as well as military 
 dangers in such a policy. A considerable section of 
 the more rabid, of whom Jones 1 will serve as an 
 example, cried out against the criminal folly of allow 
 ing these men to carry over to the foe their wealth, 
 " the sinews of war." And it was asserted that many 
 spies were allowed passports, only to give information 
 to the enemy. The North had proclaimed that 
 only two parties were there as long as war continued, 
 "patriots and traitors." Many in the South felt the 
 same way. But while opinion sustained the Federal 
 Congress in expelling the demagogue Vallandighain, 
 who furnished a text for patriotic preachment even in 
 fiction, there was less unanimity in the South when 
 the demagogue Brownlow was expelled from Tennessee, 
 to become a martyr in the North. 
 
 His case may be summarized as a fair instance of the 
 1 See e. g. t Vol. I, pp. 80, 89, 93, 97, 102, 105, etc. 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 249 
 
 leniency with which Benjamin was disposed to act. 
 Being a preacher, Brownlow was debarred the mode of 
 expression that would have best suited his taste ; in 
 lieu of profanity, he was driven to such circumlocutions 
 as "that heaven-offending, hell -deserving secessionist, 
 W. L. Yancey," his usual manner of referring to the 
 Alabamian. In language similarly choice, he had ex 
 pressed his opinions of the Confederacy and its leaders 
 in his paper, the Knoxville Whig, until the Confederate 
 forces entering Tennessee drove him to flight and con 
 cealment in the mountains. From his place of hiding 
 he sent word to General Crittenden that he would 
 surrender and return to Knoxville to stand trial 
 before the civil authorities for treasonable utterances, 
 if assured of protection against arrest by the military 
 and court martial. General Crittenden accepted this 
 proposition, and, under instructions from Eichmond, 
 further assured Brownlow that he would not be pros 
 ecuted, but would be simply expelled from the state. 
 Benjamin was at the time acting both as minister of 
 justice and as minister of war, and had been assured 
 by the local prosecuting officers that they would be 
 content to expel Brownlow. 
 
 But when he ventured to return, in the bitter 
 ness of factional feeling in east Tennessee there was 
 immediate demand for his prosecution, the pledge of 
 General Crittenden was violated, and the vituperative 
 editor was at once cast into prison. The time for his 
 trial coming on, the district attorney produced a letter 
 from Benjamin, as Secretary of War (December 22, 
 1861), explaining the circumstances, and adding that he 
 regretted the preacher's arrest, since "color is given 
 to the suspicion that Brownlow has been entrapped. 
 
250 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 . . . General Crittenden feels sensitive on this 
 point, and I share his feeling. Better that any, the 
 most dangerous enemy, however criminal, should 
 escape, than that the honor and good faith of the 
 government should be impugned or even suspected. 
 General Crittenden gave his word only that Brownlow 
 should not be tried by the court martial, and I gave 
 authority to promise him protection, if he would sur 
 render, to be conveyed across the border. We have 
 both kept our words as far as was in our power, but 
 every one must see that Brownlow would now be safe, 
 and at large, if he had not supposed that his reliance 
 on the promises made him would insure his safe de 
 parture from east Tennessee. Under all the circum 
 stances, therefore, if Brownlow is exposed to harm 
 from his arrest, I shall deem the honor of the govern 
 ment so far compromitted as to consider it my duty to 
 urge on the President a pardon for any offense of 
 which he may be found guilty j and I repeat the ex 
 pression of my regret that he was prosecuted, however 
 evident his guilt." 
 
 Browulow's very inflammatory editorials, urging 
 the destruction of railway bridges and the burning 
 of the houses of Southern sympathizers, had made 
 the Confederates of the region very bitter against 
 him ; but in view of this letter the prosecution was 
 dropped, and he went on his way, still vindictive and 
 defiant. In a public address some months later he 
 gave a graphic account of his experiences, and we 
 must add another sample of his writing. He had 
 been visited in jail by some Confederate officers who 
 suggested that he take the oath to their government. 
 " Before I would take the oath to support such a hell- 
 
ATTOENEY-GENEEAL 251 
 
 forsaken institution, I would suffer myself to rot or die 
 in jail of old age. ... A short time since I was 
 called upon by a little Jew, who, I believe, is the 
 Secretary of War of the bogus Confederacy. He threat 
 ened to hang me, and I expected no more mercy from 
 him than was shown by his illustrious predecessors 
 toward Jesus Christ. I entered into a long corre 
 spondence with this specimen of expiring humanity, but 
 from mercy or forgetfulness on their part, I was per 
 mitted to depart with all my documents in my little 
 valise, which I hope to publish at no distant day." * 
 
 The winter, as we have said, had almost worn itself 
 away without any effort to use the immense armies of 
 the North. But though McClellan would lie dormant 
 on the Virginia frontier, there were other danger points 
 for the Confederacy, and from two of these bad news 
 came in February and March. Forts Henry and Don- 
 elson, guarding the centre of the long Confederate line, 
 and situated respectively on the Tennessee and Cum 
 berland Eivers where those streams were but eleven 
 miles apart, were of vital importance to the successful 
 operation of General Albert Sidney Johnston's plans 
 in Kentucky and Tennessee. Early in February Grant 
 swooped down upon Fort Henry, which had but a 
 small garrison, and on the 6th telegraphed to Halleck : 
 " Fort Henry is ours. ... I shall take and destroy 
 Fort Donelson on the 8th." The boast, unlike the 
 self-contained Grant, was made good, but not quite in 
 
 1 Correspondence in Delta, Jan. 3, 1862 ; Brownlow's speech, 
 True Delta, April 6 ; cf. Nicolay & Hay's Lincoln, Vol. V, p. 80. 
 For Benjamin's severe retaliatory order against the Tennessee 
 bridge burners, sharply but I think unjustly criticised in view of 
 similar policies of the Union commanders, see Coffin, Marching to 
 Victory, p. 377, and Official Records, Series I, Vol. VII, p. 701. 
 
252 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the time he had allowed himself. Though every effort 
 was put forth by General Johnston to strengthen the 
 place, and though he received all the assistance the 
 administration could give him, Fort Donelson surren 
 dered unconditionally on February 16th, with about 
 12,000 men, forty pieces of artillery, and a large 
 amount of stores. It was the severest blow yet dealt 
 the Confederates, fatal to General Johnston's campaign, 
 and felt as a deep disgrace on account of the conduct 
 of the two senior officers of the garrison, who, after 
 bungling a perfectly feasible and proper plan of re 
 treat, had slipped away and cast upon General Buck- 
 ner the responsibility of surrender. 
 
 The wave of bad news from the West was met by a 
 similar wave from the East, and the two, meeting at 
 Richmond, qu i te submerged the Secretary of War. The 
 Confederates, having failed in the effort to keep the 
 Federal forces outside of Hatteras, had hastily fortified 
 Eoauoke Island, commanding the passage from Pam- 
 lico to Albemarle Sound, and thus protecting not only 
 a number of small yet useful ports, but also the ap 
 proach to Norfolk from the rear. General Benjamin 
 Huger, with about fifteen thousand men and, it was 
 believed, ample supplies, was in command of the de 
 partment at Norfolk. To General Henry A. Wise was 
 entrusted the task of completing the poor fortifications 
 on the island and defending it. In spite of urgent ap 
 peals for help, however, General Wise got but little 
 from the war office or from General Huger. On Feb 
 ruary 8th the small force on the island was over 
 whelmed, and most of it captured. The loss in killed 
 and wounded was slight ; but a touch of tragedy that 
 was not forgotten was the death of the gallant young 
 
ATTORNEY-GENERAL 253 
 
 Captain O. Jennings Wise, whose life, so his father 
 and many others thought, had been a mere sacrifice to 
 the incapacity of those who would not supply means 
 adequate to make the defense of the island anything 
 but a farce. The loss of this strategic point, too, was 
 more severe than would appear from the number 
 of troops killed. In its consequences it was, perhaps, 
 more irreparable than the surrender of Donelson and 
 Henry ; for the gradual loss of seaports was already 
 making it difficult for the Confederacy to breathe, and 
 would in time shut off the breath of life altogether. 
 
 For the loss of the Western forts the government 
 could not receive all of the blame ; this was shared by 
 General A. S. Johnston, against whom the fickle and 
 ungrateful press and the demagogues railed atrociously, 
 saddening the short life of one of the most able and 
 chivalrous officers the South produced. But the Presi 
 dent and the Secretary of War came in for their part 
 of this undesirable popular attention when they reso 
 lutely sustained General Johnston. In the case of 
 Roanoke Island it was clear that General Wise was 
 not at fault. Some other victim must be found, and 
 his rather intemperate talk, coupled with his official 
 report of the loss, pointed to General Huger and Mr. 
 Benjamin. General Wise was something of a popular 
 idol ; it was he of whom the current doggerel ran : 
 
 1 ' Old John Brown, down in Harper's Ferry section, 
 Went about his ways to raise an insurrection, 
 And thought that the niggers would sustain 'im : 
 But Old Governor Wise, put his specs upon his eyes, 
 And sent him to the happy land o' Canaan." 
 
 When he charged, therefore, that neither General 
 
254 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Huger nor the Secretary of War had paid any attention 
 to his requisitions for men and materials and ammuni 
 tion 5 that they had rejected with contempt his recom 
 mendations, and with insolence his assurances that 
 Eoanoke Island and no other point was the destina 
 tion of the Federal expedition known to have sailed ; 
 and that the brave men who had fallen and people 
 remembered that one of them was his own son had 
 been shamefully sacrificed to incompetence or indif 
 ference in high places, all the suppressed fury of press 
 and politicians was turned loose upon Mr. Benjamin 
 and General Huger. Against the former, especially, 
 was their wrath directed, as they diligently searched 
 through every page of his record to discover grounds 
 for the present indictment. A fair sample of the edi 
 torial assaults upon Benjamin may be given from one 
 of the milder papers, to show the trend of popular 
 opinion. The Eichmond Examiner ' declared that the 
 War Department had been completely taken by surprise 
 in the case of all recent disasters : 
 
 "So curious [is] the ignorance and complacency of 
 our government in this matter, that we are advised 
 that, though the defense of Eoauoke Island was urged 
 upon the Secretary of War for weeks before the demon 
 stration of the enemy was made, Mr. Benjamin in 
 sisted strenuously and to the last moment that Eoanoke 
 Island was positively not an object of the enemy's 
 attack, but that a great battle was to come off at Pen- 
 sacola, for which he was busy in preparation, sending 
 to the gulf coast all the shot, shell, and ammunition 
 that could be gathered. . . . With equal disre 
 gard and the same stupid complacency was treated the 
 
 1 Quoted in True Delta, March 7. 
 
ATTOBNEY-GENEKAL 255 
 
 protest of General Wise, made directly to the govern 
 ment at the time of his taking command of Eoanoke 
 Island. These are strange facts ; but they are true. It 
 is possible that the persistent delusion of Mr. Benjamin 
 as to the designs of the enemy on the coast may be 
 accounted for on the supposition that his mind was 
 abused by the duplicity of the spies he employs. It is 
 notorious that the easy credulity of the secretary has 
 more than once been imposed upon by double-dealing 
 spies and covert agents of the Lincoln government. 
 . . . We are surprised by each movement of the 
 enemy ; the War Department seems to know no more 
 of his plans and intentions than the children in the 
 streets of Eichmond ; the credulity of its secretary is 
 absolutely astonishing. ' J 
 
 In the face of popular distrust so wide- spread, Mr. 
 Benjamin's usefulness as Secretary of War was ob 
 viously ended. The voice of the people, besides, 
 found a willing echo in Congress, where a special com 
 mittee was called to investigate the recent misfortunes 
 and to place the blame. The reports of the officers in 
 volved were submitted to this committee, and the 
 secretary himself was summoned to testify. There 
 was little hope in the reports of the officers, in the 
 testimony of the secretary, or in the composition of 
 the committee, that he would be exonerated. Mr. 
 Davis, always doggedly loyal to his subordinates, even 
 at the dear cost of his own popularity, would have ig 
 nored even Congressional censure and sustained Ben 
 jamin, but finally resolved to outwit rather than directly 
 withstand the assailants. "It is said Mr. Benjamin 
 has been dismissed, or resigned," writes Jones, in glee, 
 on March 27, 1862. But next day he adds, "Mr. 
 
256 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Benjamin has been promoted. He is now Secretary of 
 State. 7 ' l Before the Congressional committee could 
 render its fatal report against Benjamin, he had been 
 wisely transferred to the one department for which, if 
 for any, he was preeminently fit. 
 
 As has been anticipated, the finding of the commit 
 tee was detailed and uncompromising. After a 
 resume of all the evidence submitted, the report con 
 cluded : " General Huger and the Secretary of War paid 
 no practical attention to those urgent appeals of 
 General Wise; sent forward none of his important 
 requisitions ; and permitted General Wise and his in 
 considerable force to remain to meet at least 15,000 
 men, well armed and equipped. If the Secretary of 
 War and the commanding general at Norfolk had not 
 the means to reenforce General Wise, why was he not 
 ordered to abandon his position and save his com 
 mand? But, upon the contrary, he was required to 
 remain and sacrifice his command, with no means in 
 his insulated position to make his escape in case of de 
 feat. The committee, from the testimony, are there 
 fore constrained to report, that whatever of blame and 
 responsibility is justly attributable to any one for the 
 defeat of our troops at Eoanoke Island on February 8, 
 1862, should attach to Major-General Benjamin Huger 
 and the late Secretary of War, J. P. Benjamin." a 
 
 We must agree, at least in part, with the verdict 
 here rendered, though our reasons for concurrence 
 might be different from those that convinced Congress. 
 Mr. Benjamin, in spite of his undoubted skill and 
 
 1 Vol. I, p. lie. 
 
 2 Official Records, Series I, Vol. IX, pp. 183-190 : cf. pp. 122, el 
 aeq., 132, 141, 164. 
 
ATTORNEY-GENERAL 257 
 
 services in organizing and directing the routine work 
 of the War Department, certainly had displayed no 
 talent for the larger and more difficult work of plan 
 ning or assisting in the execution of actual campaigns. 
 He had no victory of importance to grace his adminis 
 tration ; and here were two great disasters, to one of 
 which, at least, the secretary had contributed by a 
 serious error of judgment. After the war Mr. 
 Benjamin, in a private letter to Colonel Charles 
 Marshall, * furnished an entirely satisfactory and 
 creditable explanation of his failure to respond to 
 General Wise's appeals for ammunition : he had none 
 to send. He had hinted strongly at that fact in one 
 of his first replies to the general, and it is wofully 
 manifest in the reports of the Secretary of War just be 
 fore and just after the defeat. Mr. Benjamin further 
 more states that he and Mr. Davis dared not present 
 to the committee the whole of the facts about the dearth 
 of powder, lest news of the critical condition should 
 leak out and get to the Yankees ; that by the President's 
 consent and advice he therefore suppressed the in 
 formation that would have cleared him. It would be 
 idle to doubt the sincerity of these statements, or the 
 good intentions of Mr. Benjamin ; the readiness to 
 shoulder popular odium for the sake of the cause is 
 characteristic and, of course, highly commendable in 
 one whose absolute devotion to that cause none but the 
 unreflecting could question ; but the explanation in 
 this letter, which may be found treated in some detail 
 in the Life of General Wise, cannot be accepted by us 
 as it apparently is there. In faith, it is no excuse at 
 all for what we consider the most important of Mr. 
 
 1 Quoted in Life of Wise, by B. H. Wise, pp. 304-315. 
 
258 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Benjamin's faults as Secretary of War an error of 
 judgment. Powder or no powder in the supposedly 
 full magazines of General Huger, it was still within 
 the secretary's power, as the report of the committee 
 indicated, to warn General Wise and let him save his 
 command. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 
 
 IN writing of the period of Mr. Benjamin's life oc 
 cupied by his incumbency of the office of Secretary of 
 State, I shall endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, be 
 ing diverted into writing a history of Confederate 
 diplomacy or foreign relations. I shall devote my 
 self, as largely as may be, to Mr. Benjamin's own share 
 in these affairs. But for the coherence and clearness 
 of the narrative, it will be necessary to outline the 
 general course of events, both foreign and domestic, 
 whether or not we momentarily lose sight of him 
 personally. 
 
 As regards the general condition of foreign affairs, 
 it becomes at once apparent that only a maritime and 
 trading nation, with considerable commerce and a 
 respectable navy to protect it, could be of service to 
 the blockaded Confederacy with cotton to sell. Such 
 nations were not numerous. In fact, since we are not 
 attempting more than a sketch, we need mention only 
 three from which there might be possibility of succor 
 Spain, France, and England. The first named, 
 although still a slave power and therefore at first 
 thought less likely to be hostile, could hardly be ex 
 pected to be friendly to the new nation whose citizens, 
 in the past, had been persistent filibusters. There 
 fore the ablest representations of a change of senti 
 ment, now that the South was independent of the 
 North, had no weight with Spain. Since her distrust 
 could not be overcome, France and England alone re- 
 
260 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 mained, and with them the Confederacy sought to 
 establish relations. It has been suggested that, with a 
 Benjamin Franklin to help, it might have been pos 
 sible for the Confederacy to succeed in its revolution, 
 through foreign aid, just as the Colonies succeeded 
 in their revolution. But a glance at history should 
 suffice to establish the fact that this is a misleading 
 parallel to draw between the relations of Europe 
 and the English Colonies in 1778, and Europe and the 
 Confederacy in 1860. Without going into details, 
 we should note that in 1778 the traditional enemies, 
 England and France, were still enemies ; France, more 
 over, smarting under her loss of colonial power to 
 England, especially in Canada, hailed with eagerness 
 the proffered chance to deal a telling stroke that might 
 cut off the American Colonies from perfidious Albion. 
 France, too, was then still the leading power of the 
 continent, with Spain, as it were, in tow, and lesser 
 nations hardly to be considered. Leaving out of con 
 sideration all other differences, it is sufficient for our 
 purpose to note that in 1860, France and England were 
 on the friendliest terms ; that there was no hope of 
 fomenting the jealousy or the cupidity or the love of 
 revenge of one against the other ; and that France, no 
 longer assured of her preeminence in Europe, could 
 not have interposed with the same effectiveness, even 
 had she cared to act independently of England. 
 
 What had been done by the Confederate government 
 to make friends for itself, if none such kindly volun 
 teered to speak first? Our answer involves the re 
 statement of many facts that are very familiar, but not 
 to be overlooked. It must be confessed that the Con 
 federates had so far proceeded in a fashion likely to 
 
THE CONFEDEBATE COMMISSIONEKS 261 
 
 repel rather than to encourage alliance with foreign 
 powers. There was among many of the leaders of the 
 new nation an arrogant assumption that the old world 
 must come and make suit to the Confederacy for its 
 friendship. The more rational among them understood 
 enough of the relations between peoples to know that 
 such a feeling followed common interest and reciprocal 
 advantage ; that pure sentiment had never, perhaps, 
 hurried even the most emotional and romantic of peo 
 ples into alliances that must involve costly war ; in 
 short, that there must be a quid pro quo to secure any 
 alliance. They had something to give, namely, cotton ; 
 and they estimated too highly its value to the world. 
 Cotton was indispensable to England, they said, and 
 perhaps also to France ; cotton was king. Being an 
 agricultural people, and meaning, as soon as the war 
 should be ended, to establish practical free trade, they 
 thought that the precious privileges of buying their 
 cotton and selling them in return the manufactured 
 articles they would need, should be sufficient induce 
 ment to secure the friendship of England and of 
 France. They forgot, apparently, that, granted the 
 establishment of their Confederacy, a very large part 
 of their needs could and would be more cheaply sup 
 plied by the neighboring manufacturing states of the 
 North 1 than by any foreign competitor, a consider 
 ation that probably did not escape France and Eng 
 land. They were therefore offering but a doubtful 
 advantage in trade, and no other could be thought of. 
 This was understood to be the true state of affairs by 
 some, at least, of the public men at the South. 3 
 
 1 Of. Benjamin to Mason, Dec. 11, 1862 ; see Mason, p. 360 et seq. 
 9 Of. Battles and Leaders, Vol. I, p. 108. 
 
262 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 But the government with which Mr. Benjamin was 
 associated proceeded for some time upon the assump 
 tion that cotton was not merely king but czar. 
 Whether Mr. Benjamin really believed in the false 
 doctrine of king cotton, or how far he believed in it, 
 it is not possible to determine absolutely. We would 
 fain have him among the sane men, like Mr. Ehett ; 
 and certainly his experience and knowledge of the 
 old world, greater than that of most of his associates, 
 would predispose us to the opinion that he must have 
 known better than to imagine that the South had both 
 the fulcrum and the lever that would move the universe 
 at will. There is no positive proof that he actively 
 propagated the heresy in his speeches ; yet Mr. Bus- 
 sell, in the interview referred to in a previous chapter, 
 reports that, " Mr. Benjamin did not appear afraid of 
 anything ; but his confidence respecting Great Britain 
 was based a good deal, no doubt, on his firm faith in 
 cotton, and in England's utter subjection to her cotton 
 interests and manufactures." The same Mr. Russell, 
 now become Sir William, adds elsewhere : l u Many 
 long years afterward I walked with Mr. Benjamin 
 from a pleasant dinner party in Mayfair, and reminded 
 him of our conversation in Montgomery. c Ah, yes, ' 
 he said, ' I admit I was mistaken ! I did not believe 
 that your government would allow such misery to your 
 operatives, such loss to your manufacturers, or that the 
 people themselves would have borne it.' ' Further 
 more, whether so misguided himself or not, Benjamin 
 cooperated with a government that was. Perhaps he 
 really believed otherwise ; perhaps he pressed, in the 
 secret meetings of the cabinet, for some such instruc- 
 
 1 North American Review, 1898, p. 373. 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 263 
 
 tions to the Confederate commissioners as Mr. Rhett 
 had outlined, and merely surrendered his own views 
 in order that there might be harmony in the govern 
 ment. If this be so, it is more creditable to his loyalty 
 than to his intelligence. 
 
 When Mr. Benjamin became Secretary of State, 
 nearly all of the important diplomatic or quasi-diplo 
 matic agents of the Confederacy had been appointed, 
 and the policy of the government, following the lines 
 indicated, had been defined, although "the policy of 
 the State Department," writes 1 the courteous and dis 
 creet Mr. L. Q. Washington, assistant secretary and 
 chief clerk, "can hardly be said to have taken shape 
 and development during Mr. Toombs's incumbency." 
 Mr. Toombs, in fact, is said to have declared that he 
 carried the archives of the State Department under his 
 hat one recalls Lincoln's post-office, said to have been 
 similarly kept. Matters had rather bettered under 
 Secretary Hunter, who had sent out, in the autumn of 
 1861, the most notable emissaries of all, Messrs. Mason 
 and Slidell, with instructions 2 to pursue a policy as 
 rational, perhaps, as was possible without treason to 
 King Cotton. 
 
 When these two gentlemen were inadvisedly seized 
 on board the British ship Trent, Mr. Benjamin, with 
 the rest of the Confederacy, had hoped that the inci 
 dent would involve the Yankees in a war with Eng 
 land, and had smiled at Jones's rhetorical bombast 
 about its bringing "the Eagle cowering to the feet of 
 the Lion." But this hope had faded and been suc 
 ceeded by others on the kaleidoscope with which the 
 
 1 Lawley MS. 
 
 2 Callahan, Diplomatic History, p. 133. 
 
264 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 South was amusing itself, before Mr. Benjamin was 
 called upon to preside at that machine. After all, 
 even if England had shown signs of fighting in defense 
 of her flag, it could not have pleased the new Secretary 
 of State to read in the London Times, 1 that " Messrs. 
 Mason and Slidell are about the most worthless booty 
 it would be possible to extract from the jaws of the 
 American lion. They have long been known as the 
 blind and habitual haters and revilers of this country. 
 . . . It is through their lifelong hatred and abuse 
 of England that they come here in their present con 
 spicuous capacity. . . . So we do sincerely hope 
 that our countrymen will not give these fellows any 
 thing in the shape of an ovation. . . . They must 
 not suppose, because we have gone to the very verge 
 of a great war to rescue them, that therefore they are 
 precious in our eyes. We should have done just as 
 much to rescue two of their own negroes, and, had 
 that been the object of the rescue, the swarthy Pompey 
 and Caesar would have had just the same right to 
 triumphal arches and municipal addresses as Messrs. 
 Mason and Slidell." Clearly, Mr. Mason would find 
 the need of much suavity and cleverness if he hoped 
 to win the confidence of the " Thunderer" and its 
 readers. 
 
 It may be proper here to consider the personal quali 
 fications of the two Confederate commissioners for the 
 delicate missions to which they had been assigned. 
 Both had the full confidence of the Eichmond govern 
 ment. Though more intimate with Slidell, Benjamin 
 knew Mr. Mason thoroughly ; hence the most com 
 plete accord might be looked for between the gov- 
 
 Jan 11, cited by Rhodes, Vol. Ill, p. 540, note. 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 265 
 
 eminent and both of its envoys. Of Mr. Mason first, 
 it can hardly be far wrong to say that his polit 
 ical record was not such as to make him altogether 
 persona grata in England. An extremist in his state 
 rights and pro-slavery opinions, generally known as 
 the author of the drastic Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, ' 
 and forcing himself to the front in speech and action 
 whenever these questions came up, such a record, 
 blazoned in the press, could not be forgotten. Nor 
 was the uncompromising Virginian solicitous to con 
 ceal his opinions in deference to the contrary view 
 of the government to which he was sent to plead the 
 cause of the Confederacy. It is scarcely necessary to 
 point out that pro-slavery sentiments could not meet 
 with the open approval of Earl Russell, unless that 
 individual were mightily changed from the Lord John 
 of earlier days. The political antecedents of the com 
 missioner, therefore, were unfortunate, and not modi 
 fied by present demeanor. Mr. Mason was a man of 
 good abilities, and sterling uprightness of character, 
 honest and reliable, lacking neither in mental capacity 
 nor in energy. But he was unbending in temper, 
 rather cold in manner, and sensitive about his dignity. 
 On a mission from a government of no certain stand 
 ing among the nations, and which had proffered noth 
 ing but a dangerous friendship in return for the re 
 ception it sought in England, it behooved him to 
 approach the British authorities with extreme defer 
 ence ; to submit without manifesting resentment to 
 such treatment as might very properly have been 
 resented by an established government ; to be patient 
 and long-suffering while he sought to make good 
 1 See Mason, p. 81. 
 
266 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the claims of his people. Such considerations could 
 not escape a man so intelligent as Mr. Mason, and 
 with good intent he endeavored to act accordingly ; 
 but personality is often stronger than intelligence, and 
 in spite of himself his attitude toward the British 
 government was rather that of one demanding a patent 
 right than of one asking action that would be im 
 mensely helpful to his people and probably very costly 
 to England. This much, I think, may be justly said 
 without undue disparagement of one who loyally did 
 his best. His position was extremely difficult and 
 trying ; but he should have realized that it could not 
 be otherwise. On the whole, therefore, the conclusion 
 seems justifiable that a man of greater urbanity, of 
 more flexible temperament and pleasing address might 
 have had better success. 
 
 Such a man, if he could possibly have been spared 
 at home, was the Secretary of State himself. Such a 
 man, too, in certain respects, was Mr. Slidell, who in 
 his dealings with the polite but rather unreliable 
 French authorities displayed even greater patience 
 and self-control than Benjamin. While his political 
 history would, doubtless, have been no more satisfac 
 tory in England than Mason's, he had some of the 
 very personal qualifications which the latter lacked. 
 He would have been more patient as well as more 
 insinuating. Although perhaps of no greater intellec 
 tual ability, and of less forceful character, than Mason, 
 he was a more adroit politician, and proved a better 
 diplomat. Yet the connections of his family and his 
 personality best fitted him for the post he was sent to 
 occupy, as he was in general of a type extremely dif 
 ferent from the English and not likely to win their 
 
THE CONFEDEKATE COMMISSIONEKS 267 
 
 confidence. Slidell proved a good choice for France ; it 
 is doubtful if he would have suited so well in England. 
 When Benjamin assumed charge of his office, offi 
 cial news of the reception accorded the Confederate 
 commissioners was still lacking, for even now dis 
 patches came through but slowly and at great hazard. 
 Accordingly he wrote to Mr. Mason : " In the absence 
 of reliable information as to the present condition of 
 public affairs in England and the tone and temper of 
 its government and people, the President does not deem 
 it advisable to make any change in the instructions 
 communicated to you by my predecessor. ' 7 1 The earlier 
 dispatches, therefore, confine themselves largely to a 
 summary of military and naval operations, lest Mason 
 be misled by the Federal accounts. It must have been 
 far from pleasant to tell of the loss of Forts Donelson and 
 Henry and of Eoanoke Island, which disasters, the sec 
 retary says, 2 have had the good effect of rousing the peo 
 ple to a proper sense of the magnitude of the struggle 
 in which they are engaged and of the necessity for 
 strenuous exertion. The effort to prove the blockade 
 ineffective is still most conspicuous, as for example, 
 in the dispatch of April 8th above referred to : " You 
 will find annexed a list showing the number and char 
 acter of the vessels which have traded between our 
 ports and foreign countries, during the months of No 
 vember, December, and January. They exceed one 
 hundred in number, and establish in the most conclu 
 sive manner the inefficiency of the blockade which it 
 has pleased neutral nations heretofore to respect as 
 binding on their commerce.' 7 In his third dispatch to 
 
 1 Dispatch to Mason, April 8 ; see Mason, p. 291. 
 9 Dispatch to Mason, April 5 ; see Mason, p. 288. 
 
268 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Mason, 1 dated April 12th, he discusses at some length 
 the difficulty of communicating with the envoys, and 
 broaches the question, whether dispatches to a neutral 
 power may properly be considered contraband of war, 
 and if not, what is the distinction between these and 
 dispatches to an envoy to a neutral power. That Ben 
 jamin should have wasted his time in formulating so 
 futile a proposition, is indication of the annoyance he 
 felt at the delays in hearing from the men whose policy 
 he was supposed to direct. In this same dispatch we 
 find a passage that may be quoted to show the line of 
 argument upon which he urged Mason to proceed : 
 4 ' So long as England as well as the other neutral 
 powers shall continue practically to assert, as they 
 now do, their disbelief of our ability to maintain our 
 government, what probability is there that our enemy 
 will fail to rely on that very fact as the best ground for 
 hope in continued hostilities? Without intending 
 that their policy should be thus disastrous in its re 
 sults, it cannot be doubted on reflection, that the delay 
 of the neutral powers in recognizing the nationality of 
 the South is exerting a very powerful influence in pre 
 venting the restoration of peace on this continent ; and 
 in thus injuriously affecting vast interests of their own 
 which depend for prosperity and even for existence on 
 free intercourse with the South. There is every reason 
 to believe that our recognition would be the signal for 
 the immediate organization of a large and influential 
 party in the Northern states favorable to putting an 
 end to the war. It would be considered the verdict 
 of an impartial jury adverse to their pretensions. " 
 This is cogent reasoning in expression of the opinion 
 
 1 Mason, p. 293. 
 
THE CONFEBBEATB COMMISSIONERS 269 
 
 on which the envoys were consistently urged to insist, 
 that recognition alone, without intervention, would 
 end the war. If recognition had come early, indeed, 
 it seems entirely probable that this opinion would have 
 been justified by the event. 
 
 Presently, however, news began to arrive from the 
 envoys. Mr. Slidell, whom we shall mention briefly 
 first, reported an encouraging reception from the of 
 ficials in Paris, and in his initial dispatch 1 had given 
 his government a summary of political conditions that 
 strikes the keynote for the relations between the Con 
 federacy and France. He told the Secretary of State 
 that there was much favor expressed on all sides for 
 the South, and that he believed the Emperor and the 
 higher officials to be really friendly. He perceived at 
 once that the question of slavery was to have a power 
 ful influence upon the foreign relations of the Confed 
 eracy, and stated that, although the public sentiment 
 was opposed to slavery, opposition was not so earnest 
 as in England, rather the academic opinion of a people 
 not directly concerned. All things considered, there 
 fore, the French government would be inclined to 
 favor the Confederacy, and the French people would 
 not resist the Emperor in such a policy. But, 
 owing to political complications, particularly in the 
 aifairs of Italy and Mexico, and to financial embar 
 rassments, France did not wish to take the initiative 
 in any decisive action, feeling, moreover, that Eng 
 land, having more at stake than she, should have the 
 lead. Such had been the fruit of reflection upon what 
 he heard in private conversation, or read in the press ; 
 and this had been confirmed by his interviews with 
 
 1 Pickett Papers, Feb. 11, 1862. 
 
270 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 M. Thouvenel, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and 
 Count de Persigny, Minister of the Interior, both very 
 non-committal but of courteous and even friendly 
 bearing. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Mason had been received in some 
 thing of the triumphal arch style deprecated by the 
 Times, and had been a good deal misled by this en 
 thusiastic welcome. It cannot be determined with 
 absolute certainty, of course, what were the sympathies 
 of the voting majority in England. The fact seems to 
 be that, in spite of what we consider her vital interest 
 in the speedy settlement of the war, these were not 
 vital enough to permit of the American question's be 
 coming a party issue. The government of the day, 
 while not deserving great praise for its American 
 policy, understood enough of its true duties to await 
 manifestations of the popular will ; and as yet there 
 had been no manifestation of real popular concern in 
 the affairs of the "kin across the sea. 77 Mr. Mason, 
 however, did not see this, and was disposed to attach 
 undue political weight to the merely social courtesies 
 that were extended to him so generously and pleas 
 antly. The membership of the House of Lords, I sup 
 pose, was beyond question overwhelmingly in favor 
 of the Confederacy at this time ; but Mr. Mason should 
 have remembered that, in politics at least, it was not a 
 mere jest that had identified the House of Lords with 
 the excellent Mrs. Partington. Contrasting the cor 
 diality of the upper classes in England, apparently the 
 predominating sentiment, with the cautious and cold 
 refusals of Eussell to have any official relations with 
 him, Mr. Mason resented this attitude, and finally came 
 to conceive the false notion that the minister alone 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 271 
 
 stood in the way of foreign recognition for the Con 
 federate States; that, somehow, he did not in this 
 faithfully represent the will of the English people, and 
 that he was unduly influenced by the bald misrepre 
 sentations of Secretary Seward. In his dispatch of 
 June 23, 1862, l he even intimated that it might be 
 come incompatible with his official dignity to remain 
 in London, for he had concluded that when recognition 
 was next proposed he did not mean to act at the 
 present time it should be " presented as a demand of 
 right ; and if refused as I have little doubt it would 
 be to follow the refusal by a note, that I did not con 
 sider it compatible with the dignity of my government, 
 and perhaps with my own self-respect, to remain longer 
 in England." 
 
 Immediately upon the receipt of this rather alarming 
 news, Benjamin sat down to implore Mason not to act 
 rashly and to impress upon him the value of his mere 
 presence in London to await eventualities ; for the 
 withdrawal was a step that should not be taken " with 
 out very grave and weighty reasons." 2 Fortunately, 
 Mr. Mason had not acted on this impulse, and relieved 
 the anxiety at Eichmond by announcing in subsequent 
 dispatches that he had decided not to withdraw with 
 out authorization, except in some extreme case. But 
 the impression being made by his advices may be 
 seen from the references in Benjamin's dispatch 3 of 
 October 28th to the "scant courtesy" with which 
 Mr. Mason had been treated by Earl Russell, and to 
 the "marked contrast between the conduct of the 
 
 1 Mason, p. 279. 
 
 2 Dispatch September 26 ; see Mason, pp. 303-306. 
 8 Mason, p. 339. 
 
272 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 English and French statesmen now in office, in their 
 intercourse with foreign agents, eminently discreditable 
 to the former.' 7 In the next dispatch 1 he writes more 
 fully that the offensive conduct of Lord Eussell, in 
 several particulars which he recites, would be " con 
 clusive in determining [the President] to direct your 
 withdrawal from your mission, but for other consider 
 ations which have brought him to a different con 
 clusion. The chief of these is the conviction enter 
 tained that on this subject the British cabinet is not a 
 fair exponent of the sentiments and opinions of the 
 British nation. Not only from your own dispatches, 
 but from the British press and from numerous other 
 sources of information, all tending to the same result, 
 we cannot resist the conclusion that the public opinion 
 of England, in accordance with that of almost all 
 Europe, approaches unanimity in according our right 
 to recognition as an independent nation. It is true 
 that in official intercourse we cannot look to any other 
 than the British cabinet as the organ of the British 
 nation j but it is equally true that in a government so 
 dependent for continued existence on its conformity 
 with public opinion, no ministry whose course of policy 
 is in conflict with that opinion can long continue in 
 office. It is certain, therefore, that there must very 
 soon occur such a change of policy in the cabinet of 
 St. James as will relieve all embarrassments in your 
 position arising from the unfriendly feelings toward 
 us, and the dread of displeasing the United States, 
 which have hitherto been exhibited by Earl Eussell." 
 Accordingly, the body of the dispatch contains further 
 arguments, based on the blockade and the application 
 
 1 October 31 ; Mason, p. 330, et sey. 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 273 
 
 of the Treaty of Paris chiefly, to be used by Mr. Mason 
 when a fit opportunity should occur. The niisjudg- 
 ment of British public opinion is evident ; how much 
 excuse there was for such error, to which Mr. Mason's 
 reports had contributed no little, may be seen pres 
 ently. 
 
 But when this dispatch was penned, the golden 
 opportunity in England had slipped away un 
 noticed, and though others were to come in the 
 course of the strife, there were none quite so full of 
 promise. In order to appreciate this, we must con 
 sider the fortunes of the war, and the news of Ameri 
 can events as it came to England ; for never was the 
 diplomatic fate of a nation more absolutely subject 
 to the chances of war than that of the Confederacy. 
 There was no cable then ; and though mail service 
 was not much slower than now, there could not be con 
 tinuous communication. Moreover the news brought 
 by one ship might be contradicted by the next, so full 
 of falsehoods were many of the reports printed in the 
 Northern papers and the Southern journals were as 
 bad ; it was only that their opportunities of misleading 
 the outside world were much curtailed by the blockade. 
 Let us glance at the events of the spring and summer 
 of 1862, that we may better understand diplomatic 
 affairs. 
 
 Upon the retreat of General Albert Sidney Johnston 
 from Kentucky, the people of the Southwest, and of 
 New Orleans in particular, answering his and Beaure- 
 gard's very urgent appeal, put forth their utmost en 
 deavors to rebuild another army about the nucleus of 
 twelve or fifteen thousand left after Donelson and re 
 sultant disasters. Of men there came a plenty, of 
 
274 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 arms and material, pitifully little, and that distress 
 ingly bad ; but the host gathered full of high hopes 
 and of courage, and never did raw soldiers fight better 
 than those under Johnston and Beauregard in the 
 bloody fields about Shiloh Church. Though both sides 
 claimed a victory, and with some right, the death of 
 General Johnston and the loss of his daring spirit, were 
 more costly to the Confederates than were their ten 
 thousand dead, wounded, and missing to the Union 
 army. It was then, while Benjamin was composing 
 his first dispatches, that details of the great battle 
 were coming into Richmond, and Jones was writing : l 
 
 u The President is thin and haggard ; and it has been 
 whispered on the street that he will immediately be 
 baptized and confirmed. I hope so, because it may 
 place a great gulf between him and the descendant of 
 those who crucified the Saviour. Nevertheless, some 
 of his enemies allege that professions of Christianity 
 have sometimes been the premeditated accompaniments 
 of usurpation. It was so with Cromwell and with 
 Eichard III." 
 
 The anxiety of the President at this time was not 
 without reason ; for soon New Orleans fell, a loss most 
 severe in a military way, leading to the opening of the 
 Mississippi and the dividing of the Confederacy ; and 
 yet more unfortunate still in its effect on foreign 
 opinion. It was then, too, that McClellau, at last 
 goaded into action and following a route to which the 
 Northern armies ultimately had to return, gathered 
 his vast army in the Peninsula while the thin Con 
 federate line, at first under Joseph E. Johnston, and 
 when he fell wounded at Fair Oaks, under the yet 
 
 1 April 18, Vol. I, p. 120. 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 275 
 
 untried Eobert E. Lee, faced him and baffled him 
 throughout the month of June. But it was a perilous 
 season for Richmond, when Lee could write to Jack 
 son that, unless they could drive McClellan out of his 
 entrenchments he would push up those entrenchments 
 till his guns commanded the capital. Jackson and 
 Lee, taking great risks which were no risks only be 
 cause these men carried things through, first assailed 
 the helpless incompetents playing at soldier in the 
 Sheuandoah Valley, and demoralized the politicians 
 in Washington j then struck swiftly at a segregated 
 wing of McClellan' s army down on the Chicka- 
 hominy, at Games' s Mill, demoralized that general, and 
 followed him, with many a desperate fight, through 
 the Seven Days' Battles. McClellan " changed his 
 base" to the James Eiver. Doubtless it was a wise 
 move, and effected with great military skill ; but to 
 the world it was an acknowledgment that the cam 
 paign had been a failure. Europe wondered, and, in 
 spite of sympathies, praised Jackson's brilliant ex 
 ploits ; and though Malvern Hill was bloody, though 
 it may have been tactically a mistake on the part of 
 Lee, she saw that, after all the immense and costly 
 preparations of the North, their plans had been utterly 
 frustrated. 
 
 There was now a distinct lull in active operations, 
 giving time for foreign opinion to become instructed 
 on these events, while McClellan sat down to nurse his 
 wounds and his wrath, and the Washington politicians 
 sought a less timorous Napoleon. He is found, and the 
 cry is, Make way for General Pope, he who is used to 
 behold the backs of his enemies, and who dictates 
 orders from " headquarters in the saddle." And again 
 
276 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the wit of Lee and Jackson is matched, if one may so 
 use the word, against that of Pope with some assist 
 ance from Washington, till there come in order Gaines 
 ville, Groveton, and a second Bull Eun, with the 
 capital, on September 2d, again in panic and scrambling 
 for its swords and guns to repulse the " rebels " be 
 lieved to be following on Pope's heels. Neither Union 
 nor Confederate armies ever after had much acquaint 
 ance with his back or front. The politicians were, 
 for a season, brought low before McClellan, to whom 
 they appealed for counsel and defense in this hour of 
 peril. Not very reassuring news this, to go over to 
 Europe, that the man who had but two months be 
 fore been outwitted by Lee and Jackson, was the only 
 officer to whom the Union could venture to entrust the 
 army that must now be hastily gathered to protect 
 Washington and Baltimore from the victorious Con 
 federates, led by generals who were fast proving 
 themselves strategists of the first rank, and who now 
 had crossed the Potomac into Maryland. 
 
 Here was the critical moment for the Confederacy, 
 both in its military affairs and in its hopes of Great 
 Britain's recognition. General Lee, acting with his 
 usual promptitude and decision, seized the moment 
 of panic and demoralization consequent upon the sec 
 ond Bull Run to risk an incursion across the border. 
 With forces far more slender than ascribed to him by 
 panic-stricken foes, with a commissariat the very 
 thought of which would have made the pampered Fed 
 eral troops feel the pangs of starvation, and dependent 
 for his ammunition on a long and precarious line, it was 
 yet with a most splendid army of victorious veterans 
 that Lee marched into Maryland. Good news was 
 
THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS 277 
 
 hoped for from Kirby Smith and from Bragg in Ken 
 tucky, who threatened Cincinnati and Louisville ; and 
 could his soldiers but once more do what seemed im 
 possible, win a victory where all the odds of numbers 
 and equipment were against them, General Lee 
 meant, on the morrow of this fresh success, to offer 
 peace to the North on the condition of the recognition 
 of Southern independence ; and by this appeal from the 
 Washington government to the people in their hour 
 of discouragement he and Davis quite reasonably 
 hoped to shake, if not utterly to break, the resolution 
 to reconquer the seceded states. Often had he, with 
 the aid of Jackson and Longstreet, taken desperate 
 chances, relying on the chapter of accidents, and on 
 the probable mistakes of the less able generals op 
 posed to them ; and success had often justified him. 
 
 The authorities in Richmond were heartily in accord 
 with Lee, and inspired by his confidence. Davis pre 
 pared to go to the field, but was asked not to expose him 
 self. Benjamin, now learning of Mason's ill success, 
 hoped to have news to send him on which he might 
 base a yet stronger argument for "the acknowledg 
 ment of a fact patent to mankind "the recognition of 
 Confederate independence. Greater still would have 
 been his anxiety if he could have known what was 
 passing in England. She had watched with grow 
 ing interest the campaigns of this active spring and 
 summer ; and as she watched, greater had grown her 
 sympathy with the generals of the Confederacy and 
 her confidence in the ultimate success of its cause. 
 Mason took heart of grace, after the news of McClelland 
 retreat from Richmond, and asked for a personal inter 
 view with Russell, that he might the more forcibly 
 
278 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 present the arguments with which he was armed by 
 his State Department ; but the interview was declined : 
 "Her Majesty's government are still determined to 
 wait." Then, while Mason consoled himself with the 
 thought that the Alabama had been allowed to 
 sail, and that public sympathy was manifestly tending 
 his way, came the news of Pope's defeat, and of Lee's 
 advance into Maryland, in the early days of Septem 
 ber. The British press considered the Federal cause 
 hopeless, and Lord Palmerston was writing to Lord 
 Eussell that the Yankees had " got a very complete 
 smashing," and that, in the probable event of the 
 capture of Baltimore or Washington, the time seemed 
 to have come when his government and France should 
 " address the contending parties and recommend an 
 arrangement upon the basis of separation." " I agree 
 with you," replied Eussell, "that the time has come 
 for offering mediation to the United States government 
 with a view to the recognition of the independence of 
 the Confederates. I agree, further, that, in case of 
 failure, we ought ourselves to recognize the Southern 
 States as an independent state." But Palmerston, 
 again cautious, as the risk of Lee's campaign became 
 clearer, counseled delay : in case the Federal army 
 again met defeat, then would be the time to offer 
 intervention; but if not, "we may wait awhile and 
 see what may follow." 1 
 
 What followed was the news of the great battle of 
 Sharpsburg, or Antietam, and the checking of Gen 
 eral Lee. Though it was not a very costly defeat, the 
 prime object of his campaign had been lost, and he 
 
 1 Walpole's Life of Russell, Vol. II, pp. 349, 350, cited by Rhodes, 
 Vol. IV, p. 338. 
 
THE CONFEDEEATE COMMISSIONEES 279 
 
 must seek safety on his own side of the Potomac. 
 Then came the news that he had been permitted to 
 withdraw his army in fairly good order, and that 
 McClellan had been dilatory in pursuit of the South 
 ern troops. No wonder that Benjamin, writing to calm 
 Mason at this time, should have been urgent with him 
 not to leave the ungracious Eussell ; for even the re 
 sults of the campaign as they then showed would 
 add force to the Confederate demand if it had been 
 pressed. He could not know, of course, that Adams 
 was thinking that his mission would end before 
 the winter was over, and that as the October days 
 came on, and England still heard that Lee's army 
 was intact and McClellan still afraid of it, the 
 tide of Southern sympathies would sweep higher 
 and even engulf a prominent member of the British 
 government. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Ex 
 chequer, declared at Newcastle, October 7th, " There 
 is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders 
 of the South have made an army ; they are mak 
 ing, it appears, a navy ; and they have made, what 
 is more than either they have made a nation. 
 . . . We may anticipate with certainty the suc 
 cess of the Southern states so far as their sepa 
 ration from the North is concerned." * Meanwhile 
 Lincoln, taking advantage of Antietam in the same 
 way that the Confederates had hoped to do, had issued 
 his Proclamation of Emancipation, but even that was 
 as yet coldly received in England. And while the 
 cabinet were meditating a meeting to discuss their 
 policy in American affairs, with every likelihood that 
 they would decide on a course helpful to the South, 
 
 Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 339. 
 
280 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the clever Adains managed to convey indirectly to 
 their ears the instructions he had received from 
 Washington : " If the British government, either alone 
 or in combination with any other government, should 
 acknowledge the insurgents, . . . you will im 
 mediately suspend the exercise of your functions, and 
 give notice of that suspension to Earl Eussell and to 
 this department." The possibilities of war with Great 
 Britain and other powers, wrote Seward, under 
 Lincoln's instructions, had been weighed, and did not 
 appall the United States. The cabinet meeting was 
 postponed, and with it the question of Southern in 
 dependence ; though the British ministers might again 
 approach the danger line marked out by Lincoln, they 
 would not cross it. 
 
 Benjamin had no such trump card to play, nor could 
 he know that henceforth it was beyond all human 
 probability that any representations he might make 
 through Mason would have any other than superficial 
 effect. In his dispatches during the autumn of 1862 
 he sends constant reinforcements to the arguments al 
 ready familiar to us, taking advantage of every favor 
 able chance of battle to present in new forms (1) the 
 inefficiency of the blockade, maintained but fitfully at 
 many ports, and many times simply by watching 
 and chasing vessels on the high seas bound from Nas 
 sau or Cuba, or by sinking in the mouths of harbors, 
 contrary to the laws of nations, obstructions that might 
 permanently injure them ; (2) the great advantages to 
 each nation of mutual trade ; and (3) the certainty that 
 the South could never be subdued and forced into the 
 Union, a fact that should be sufficiently evident from 
 the continued reverses suffered by Federal armies in 
 
THE CONFEDEBATE COMMISSIOSTEBS 281 
 
 their unhallowed career of conquest. Occasionally, as 
 in a dispatch 1 of December llth, some variation is 
 ventured upon this basic argument ; but there is never 
 the suggestion of any larger reward than virtue's for 
 British recognition. Thus, in the dispatch referred to, 
 after an able discussion of the possible trade relations 
 in view of peace, of which he is sanguine in anticipa 
 tion of the great victory for which Lee was then pre 
 paring at Fredericksburg, Benjamin instructs Mason 
 to see what might be done even to secure action that 
 could be construed into recognition or that might lead 
 to intervention. 
 
 Many applications were at this time being made, 
 so Mason had written, for permission to buy and ex 
 port cotton from the Confederacy, and as he was not 
 thoroughly informed of existing conditions and possi 
 ble change of policy, he desired instructions. Ben 
 jamin advised him that the policy of the government 
 would be, of course, to favor cotton exportation where 
 there was some security that it would go to a 
 neutral and not to a Yankee port. Moreover, as re 
 gards the fear entertained by foreign merchants 
 that the Confederate authorities would themselves 
 destroy cotton which was the property of neutrals, 
 when in danger of falling into Federal hands, as 
 had been done at New Orleans and at scores of other 
 places, the Southern leaders could offer but this : if 
 neutral governments will protect cotton belonging to 
 their subjects and held in the Confederacy awaiting ex 
 port, preventing its confiscation or destruction by the 
 forces of the United States, the Confederate govern 
 ment will likewise agree to respect such property of 
 
 1 Pickett Papers ; see Mason, pp. 359-367. 
 
282 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 neutrals, and to protect it ; if, however, no such assur 
 ance be given, the Confederate government must con 
 tinue its policy of destruction in order to prevent cot 
 ton from falling into the hands of the enemy. Of 
 course, the assumption of any such position by Eng 
 land or France would have been a long step toward 
 intervention ; and the dissemination of the proposal 
 among the English spinners would bring a fresh crop 
 of pro-Southern sentiment, and increase the popular 
 pressure on the ministry. As a matter of fact, Ben 
 jamin's suggestion did have its effect, for Lyons, the 
 British Minister at Washington, and Mercier, the 
 French Minister, made some tentative approaches to 
 the subject of protection for neutral cotton and tobacco ; 
 but Lincoln and Seward perceived too readily whither 
 this tended. 
 
 Here we may halt in the pursuit of the policy 
 adopted toward England, which as yet had been 
 chiefly fruitful of vexation and hopes deferred, to con 
 sider what had been done with the other great Eu 
 ropean nation to which the Confederacy turned with 
 some hope of a hearing for its cause. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND 
 
 WE have seen that Slidell estimated and reported 
 with accuracy the sentiment of the French Emperor 
 and his people. Benjamin was, through his frequent 
 visits to France, familiar with the nature of its gov 
 ernment, and had made a shrewd guess at the true 
 character of its ruler. When, therefore, his impres 
 sions were confirmed by SlidelPs report, he did not 
 hesitate to adopt a policy that promised the best re 
 sults. His first dispatches to the envoy may be passed 
 over as of no particular importance, or at least not 
 different in essentials from those to Mason already 
 mentioned. The second, for example, April 8th, 1 re 
 views the blockade question, and comments on the in 
 consistency of France and England in recognizing the 
 paper blockade of the Federals after insisting that the 
 Confederacy agree to the principle of the law of nations 
 that " blockades in order to be binding must be effect 
 ive ; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient 
 really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy." 
 But the third dispatch, April 12th, is in principle, it 
 seems to me, a complete abjuration of the Southern 
 cotton heresy, which speaks no little for the influence 
 of Benjamin over Davis and for his clever estimate of 
 Louis Napoleon. 
 
 Omitting the earlier and more formal parts of the 
 
 1 Pickett Papers. 
 
284 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 document it is one of the few that have been often 
 printed 1 we find Benjamin saying: "It is well un 
 derstood that there exists at present a temporary em 
 barrassment in the finances of France, which might 
 have the effect of deterring that government from 
 initiating a policy likely to superinduce the necessity 
 for naval expeditions. If under these circumstances 
 you should after cautious inquiry be able to satisfy 
 yourself that the grant of a subsidy for defraying the 
 expenses of such expeditions would suffice for remov 
 ing any obstacle to an arrangement or understanding 
 with the Emperor, you are at liberty to enter into en 
 gagements to that effect. In such event the agreement 
 would take the form most advantageous to this country 
 by a stipulation to deliver on this side a certain num 
 ber of bales of cotton to be received by the merchant 
 vessels of France at certain designated ports. In this 
 manner one hundred thousand bales of cotton of 500 
 pounds each, costing this government but $4,500,000 
 would represent a grant to France of not less than 
 $12,500,000, or 63,000,000 francs, if cotton be worth, as 
 we suppose, not less than twenty-five cents per pound 
 in Europe. ... I do not state this sum as the 
 limit to which you would be authorized to go in 
 making a negotiation on the subject, but to place 
 clearly before you the advantage which would result 
 in stipulating for payment in cotton." The subsidy, 
 therefore, might be even larger than that suggested ; 
 and the stipulation for payment in cotton was not a 
 sine qua non. The offer was to be made, primarily, to 
 induce France to raise the blockade, by armed inter- 
 
 'See Bigelow, p. 176; of. Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 346; my citation 
 is from the original, Pickett Papers ; cf . Richardson, Vol. II, p. 229. 
 
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 285 
 
 vention if necessary ; but Slidell was given still further 
 discretion : "If you find, then, that it would be more 
 feasible to use the discretion vested in you to procure 
 a recognition, than to raise the blockade, you are to 
 consider yourself authorized to use the same means 1 as 
 are placed at your disposal for raising the blockade. " 
 This dispatch was an important triumph for the 
 Secretary of State, and a radical departure from the 
 policy to which the administration, so far, had seemed 
 to commit itself. By what arguments Mr. Davis was 
 brought to assent to this offer we can only surmise ; 
 but we may feel assured that a step so important was 
 not taken without his knowledge and consent. By 
 what reasoning Benjamin brought himself to see the 
 possible advantage of such terms to France while he 
 was offering England only the ordinary privileges of 
 trade, we can also guess. From the reports of wide 
 sympathy with the Confederate cause in England he 
 was led to believe, or confirmed in the belief, that the 
 British government, which he knew to be dependent 
 on popular support, would sooner or later yield to the 
 pressure of public opinion ; and from the sketch we 
 have given of what was taking place in England it 
 may be seen that his confidence was not without justi 
 fication. But he knew that the interest of the French 
 people in cotton was not so vital, and besides, that 
 their government was not a democracy, and hence 
 not so immediately responsive to popular opinion, 
 while the ambitious Emperor for the time controlled 
 everything. To him, engaged in costly schemes that 
 might eventuate in war, and anxiously seeking money 
 to prosecute them, such a temptation might come as 
 1 Italics in the original. 
 
286 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 decisive. All now hinged on the continued success of 
 the Confederate armies, and on the skill with which 
 Slidell might use the large powers entrusted to him. 
 
 Events in the Confederacy at this period have 
 already been outlined ; the one of most significance 
 for the negotiations with France, and at the same time 
 most nearly touching Benjamin himself, was the cap 
 ture of New Orleans, the danger of which began to be 
 apparent to the Eichmond authorities soon after this 
 dispatch was written. But while disquieting news was 
 coming from that quarter, Benjamin was cheered by 
 a visit from Mercier ; for though he declared his visit 
 strictly informal and was himself very guarded, it was 
 made with the consent of Seward, and showed that for 
 some reason France was interested to learn something 
 of the status of affairs at Eichmond. Mercier reported 
 to his government that, having sailed to Norfolk on a 
 French vessel of war, and having received permission 
 to go to Eichmond in a private capacity, he went at 
 once. 1 " My first visit was to Mr. Benjamin, Secretary 
 of State, whom I had known when he represented 
 Louisiana in the United States Senate. I said to him 
 that the purpose of my journey was merely to assure 
 myself, for myself, of the true condition of things ; and 
 that I called to beg him to aid me in attaining it. He 
 answered that he would do so with the greatest pleasure, 
 and that he would be delighted that I should be able 
 to penetrate to the truth, which, judging from all that 
 came back to him from the North, appeared to be little 
 known there. I condense, M. le Ministre, what I heard 
 from the mouth of Mr. Benjamin, and in conversation 
 
 1 Report published in the papers ; see N. Y. Tribune, Feb. 9, 
 1863. 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIONS 287 
 
 with others. i We have, ' they said to me, i relied too 
 much on Europe and the power of commercial in 
 terests, but are determined to conquer our independence 
 at all hazards. On this point the sentiments of our 
 people are unanimous. They have already suffered 
 much, but they will endure far more, if necessary, to 
 accomplish their object. We do not disguise from 
 ourselves that the Federals possess infinitely superior 
 resources, and the command of the ocean ; that they 
 may in the long run make themselves masters of our 
 ports. But in capturing our cities they will find only 
 women, old men, and children. The whole population 
 capable of bearing arms will withdraw into the in 
 terior, beyond the reach of gunboats, and in presence 
 of such a resistance, the North will be obliged to 
 yield. . . . We can, if absolutely necessary, de 
 fend ourselves, but the North cannot attack us without 
 money. On the other hand, we will not hesitate an 
 instant to burn our cotton and our tobacco, rather than 
 permit them to fall into the hands of the enemy. ' I 
 have seen here all the most important personages. 
 All have held the same language and have expressed 
 the same sentiments. Nevertheless, among those per 
 sons several are known for the moderation of their 
 character and for the resistance that they opposed at 
 the outset to the movement of secession. ... I 
 see many reasons for not calling in question their pro 
 found sincerity at this moment." 
 
 One proof of their sincerity, most annoying to 
 Mercier, he found in the willingness of the Confederates 
 to burn their cotton rather than have it fall into the 
 hands of the Federals. And, indeed, the whole tone 
 of the dispatch, as well as others that he was writ- 
 
288 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ing at this time, was favorable to the South ; he 
 might almost as well have said, in plain speech, that 
 the spirit of resistance there was indomitable, and 
 capable of inspiring to years of patriotic sacrifice 
 and suffering ; that, therefore, the revolution would 
 succeed, and the Emperor might merely use his own 
 discretion as to when he would stay the arm of the 
 North in its useless shedding of blood and destruction 
 of property. 
 
 The substance of Mercier' s interview with Benjamin 
 was immediately published, though the formal dis 
 patch from which we have quoted was not, of course, 
 yet made public when Benjamin wrote to Slidell l that 
 " the result of this conversation has been very fairly 
 stated by him." If he could have read the text of the 
 Frenchman's dispatch, his expressions of approval 
 Would have been stronger. Surely, the thing could 
 hardly have been better for the South if Benjamin 
 himself had written it, instead of merely injecting it 
 into Mercier. Parts of what the French minister wrote 
 sound almost like quotations from Benjamin, and we 
 have no hesitation in declaring that in the long and 
 intimate conversation between the two, the latter suc 
 cessfully exerted his powers of influencing the mind of 
 his hearer with such a calm and well-reasoned state 
 ment of the Southern cause as carried conviction and 
 left an impression not to be effaced or replaced by any 
 thing he might afterward see or hear. Though Ben 
 jamin, in reporting the interview to Slidell, does not 
 express any elation whatever, he was doubtless 
 aware of the favorable effect he had created upon 
 Mercier, and of the good influence this might have on 
 
 1 Pickett Papers ; see also Mason, p. 297. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 289 
 
 the negotiations with France. He told Slidell : " In 
 the course of conversation he [Mercier] remarked that 
 it would be a matter of infinite gratification to himself 
 personally as well as to his government if his good 
 offices could be interposed in any way to restore peace, 
 and said that the only possible solution he saw, was 
 political independence combined with commercial union. 
 But, he continued, ' how can anybody talk to either 
 side *? I dare not utter to you a single sentence that 
 does not begin with the word independence, nor can I say 
 a syllable to the other side on any other basis than 
 union.'' " This dispatch concludes in very sanguine 
 temper, and was designed to strengthen, as it should, 
 SlidelFs hand in the use of his offer of a subsidy : 
 "You will spare no effort to avail yourself of the 
 favorable opportunity presented by our recent suc 
 cesses in urging our right to recognition. We ask for 
 no mediation, no intervention, no aid. We simply insist 
 on the acknowledgment of a fact patent to mankind." 
 Having thus ordered his forces for a vigorous assault 
 upon the already wavering Louis Napoleon, the Secre 
 tary of State was compelled to wait through the anxious 
 months till he could learn what fortune had befallen 
 Slidell ; and meanwhile untoward events would come 
 to disturb his plans. We have referred before to the 
 delays and hazards of communication between the 
 Confederate government and its foreign emissaries, 
 and perhaps it would be well to consider, without 
 needless detail, these and other difficulties that embar 
 rassed the Secretary of State in particular. In spite of 
 the fact that the blockade, at ports like Wilming 
 ton, was run with such frequency and safety as to 
 establish almost regular intercourse with Nassau, Ber- 
 
290 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 muda, or Havana, the vessels were not government 
 vessels, and could hardly be considered trustworthy 
 bearers of dispatches, unless some special passenger 
 could be charged with the duty of transmission. The 
 dispatches, then, were often entrusted to private per 
 sons l for conveyance either within the Federal lines, 
 or to some foreign port, whence they might be for 
 warded, under various disguises if necessary, to their 
 proper destinations. Until definite arrangements were 
 completed for the sending of the dispatches from 
 Mason and Slidell to Helm at Havana, Walker at Ber 
 muda, or Heyliger at Nassau, and thence through the 
 blockade at some convenient point, those coming 
 from the commissioners, and from Slidell in particu 
 lar, were frequently long delayed. Of Benjamin's dis 
 patches to them, not a few, entrusted to persons who 
 were either not zealous or not cautious, fell into the 
 hands of the enemy, the bearers having neglected to 
 destroy them when they themselves were captured. 
 This might prove not only seriously embarrassing, but 
 even disastrous, should secrets of real importance be 
 contained in them. And the excited editors, always 
 filled with vehement suspicion of the government in 
 general and of Benjamin in particular, often, as we 
 may have occasion to notice, held him as culpable 
 as the careless messengers. Fair samples of the 
 most exasperating delays at important crises, when 
 it was vitally necessary that the secretary who was 
 directing foreign policy should have authentic offi- 
 
 1 Mrs. Davis writes me (Oct. 12, 1904) : "For purposes of defy 
 ing the interception of dispatches from abroad, the French diplo 
 matic letters were dictated to Rosine Slidell by her father, and 
 they were addressed to me under a feigned and prearranged name. ' ' 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIONS 291 
 
 cial reports from his ministers, are not far to 
 seek. Benjamin's dispatch No. 6, to Slidel!, 1 dated 
 September 26, 1862, was one of those captured. It 
 opens: "Sir: Since my No. 5, of the 19th of July, 
 I am without any communication from you, with the 
 exception of your No. 2, of the 26th of February last, 
 which was brought to the department on the 26th of 
 this month by Mr. Chamberlyn, to whom you had 
 entrusted it. This gentleman has thus consumed seven 
 months in discharging the trust confided to him. Your 
 numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 are still missing." The dispatch 
 chiefly confines itself to a relation of Lee's campaign 
 against Pope and against McClellau in Maryland from 
 the Confederate point of view, and so through its pub 
 lication no important secrets were revealed ; but what 
 a painful revelation it is that Benjamin has had to 
 direct, or attempt to direct, Slidell's dealings with the 
 French Emperor, while himself absolutely in the dark, 
 as far as reliable information is concerned, regarding 
 what has happened to that minister, what has been 
 his reception, what he has done toward securing 
 recognition, during all these eventful and most anx 
 ious months of the spring and summer of 1862. Things 
 were never again quite so bad as this ; still, in a dis 
 patch of October 30th, we find Benjamin regretting 
 "that none of the letters of Mrs. Slidell for Mrs. Davis, 
 announced in your private letter to the President, have 
 ever been received. I may add that the date of the 
 last letter received by me from my own family [i. e., his 
 wife, in France] is the tenth of May." At Slidell's 
 end, too, there were sometimes delays, vexatious, dan- 
 
 1 Pickett Papers; cf. in general Callahau, pp. 51, 97; dispatch 
 published in N. Y. Times, Jan. 18, 1863. 
 
292 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 gerous, or costly, as the case might be ; thus the first 
 sentence of his dispatch written on December 27, 1862, 
 and received by Benjamin on February 27, 1863, in 
 formed the Secretary of State that he was " without 
 any dispatch from you later than 15th April." More 
 than eight months without instructions ! It is fortu 
 nate that the most important advices had been 
 sent before April 15th ; fortunate, too, that Slidell 
 was discreet and able enough to act judiciously even 
 without further instructions. This case, however, is, 
 I believe, the worst ; as a rule, communication within 
 three months could be relied on incredibly good, and 
 much to be thankful for, in view of the conditions we 
 have noted, yet truly disheartening when we remem 
 ber that these things took place not a century ago, in 
 the days of clumsy sailing ships, but in the full tide 
 of the age of steam. 
 
 Associated with this difficulty of communication 
 with the outside world, and not a little conditioned by 
 it, were other petty hindrances and embarrassments 
 that hedged about Mr. Benjamin. For knowledge of 
 current events in the great world, absolutely indis 
 pensable to one who would give intelligent direction 
 to affairs of state, he was largely dependent on North 
 ern or on foreign newspapers, since the press of the 
 South was suffering from the same stoppage of com 
 munication as he ; and these outside sources of in 
 formation might well be regarded with suspicion, some 
 times of ignorance, sometimes of partisan bias and de 
 liberate intent to deceive. Those who imagine "yel 
 low journalism.' 7 a disease of these latter days are 
 much in error ; the thing, if not the name, was cer 
 tainly distressingly prevalent during the Civil War, 
 
DIPLOMATIC KELATIONS 293 
 
 as a glance at contemporary newspapers would suffice 
 to show. A mild case indeed, and that in a journal 
 which one would have thought proof against it, is 
 familiar : Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, with 
 its flaring headlines proclaiming the " Prayer of 
 Twenty Millions" for an immediate emancipation, ' 
 which was certainly far from being the prayer of any 
 such number of the Northern people at the time, and 
 which was designed to hurry the President into action 
 that would then almost certainly have been rash and 
 impolitic. This, purposely selected as a mild in 
 stance, is the type of newspaper exaggerations and 
 misrepresentations against which Benjamin had to be 
 on his guard in making deductions from the Northern 
 press. The more important and representative news 
 papers were kept on file. 
 
 "The State Department," says Assistant Secretary 
 Washington, a l i had frequent copies of the New York 
 papers ; but the secretary did not depend on them for 
 foreign intelligence. The London Times, Daily Tele 
 graph, and other London journals, besides the maga 
 zines, were regularly received at the department and 
 most carefully scanned, especially the debates in Par 
 liament." " I have long been in receipt at the depart 
 ment of the Times, the Saturday Review, Economist, and 
 Examiner, as well as of the principal quarterly reviews, 
 and Blackivood" 1 s Magazine," writes Benjamin to Ma 
 son ; and continues: "The most striking articles 
 from the Herald, Post, and other London dailies are 
 cut out and forwarded by Mr. Hotze." 3 The libraries 
 
 1 Aug. 20, 1862. 9 Lawley MS. 
 
 'Mason, p. 472, dated April 18, 1864; of. pp. 418, 445, 463, 
 468, etc. 
 
294 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 at Bichmond being utterly inadequate, Mr. Mason 
 was commissioned to purchase and send forward books 
 that would prove helpful, especially works on inter 
 national law and Hansard's Debates, which were at 
 last and after great difficulties safely received. " Mr. 
 Benjamin's studies and training," continues Mr. Wash 
 ington, i i especially fitted him for [his] position. He 
 had a thorough acquaintance with history, with both 
 the common and the civil law, with international law 
 and modern precedents, with the classics, ancient and 
 modern ; the French language and general literature ; 
 and with the commerce, institutions, and political con 
 ditions of foreign states. He was, indeed, a citizen of 
 Louisiana, but yet far more a cosmopolitan. . . . 
 He was always a student and he kept up his habit of 
 reading. One work that he read with much care and 
 pleasure at this time was Sir Eobert Philliniore' s then 
 recent work on international law. ' ' There was need 
 of a man of wide reading and shrewd judgment to keep 
 up an intelligent acquaintance with the affairs of the 
 world under conditions such as those we have given. 
 
 Before Benjamin could hear what effect had been pro 
 duced upon Louis Napoleon by his offer of a subsidy, 
 there occurred some little things within his ken that, 
 not unnaturally, filled him with suspicion. With 
 these affairs we shall deal briefly before attempting to 
 picture more carefully the course of policy pursued by 
 Slidell. The essential facts in the case are presented 
 in a dispatch from Benjamin to Slidell, dated October 
 
 17, 1862 ; this was one of those captured by the Fed 
 erals, and extensively circulated in Northern newspa 
 pers for example, in the New York Times of January 
 
 18, 1863. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 295 
 
 M. B. Theron, the consular agent of France and 
 Spain at Galveston, had written to the governor of 
 Texas, on August 18th : t i Will you be kind enough 
 to inform me confidentially of your personal opinion on 
 the following questions : 
 
 " 1. The annexation of the Eepublic of Texas to 
 the United States, was or was not a good political 
 measure f 
 
 " 2. The act of disunion and of the junction of the 
 state of Texas to the Southern States, was or was not 
 another good or bad politic taken by the state ? 
 
 "3. The reestablishment of the old Eepublic of 
 Texas will or will not be beneficial to our beloved 
 adopted country I 
 
 " Your answer to these questions, sir, will serve me 
 as a guide in my political correspondence with the 
 governments which I have the honor to represent. " 
 
 To this astonishing document Governor Lubbock 
 answered with decision : " Permit me to say that the 
 annexation of Texas to the United States was a good 
 political measure. As to your second question, I 
 answer most emphatically that 'the act of disunion 
 and of the junction of the state of Texas to the South 
 ern States J was a good and proper political step. In 
 reply to your third inquiry, I have to say that the 
 reestablishment of the old Eepublic of Texas will not 
 be beneficial to our beloved adopted country." 
 
 Questions and answers, moreover, were forthwith sent 
 to President Davis by the governor, creating no little 
 perturbation in the mind of the Secretary of State. 
 The mere questions from such a source, to acquire in 
 formation that might be " a guide in political cor 
 respondence with" France and Spain, were of them- 
 
296 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 selves enough to arouse suspicion. Besides there were 
 special facts known to Benjamin that further alarmed 
 him ; and while he and Davis were discussing this 
 thing, a bit of apparently circumstantial evidence came 
 to confirm their fears of a French intrigue. Senator 
 Oldham, of Texas, wrote a rather long letter to Mr. 
 Davis, the substance of which was that M. Tabouelle, 
 vice-consul of France at Richmond, had, in a con 
 versation with him, made careful inquiries as to the 
 resources of Texas, and suggested the possibility of her 
 " supporting a powerful and independent people, and 
 asked [him] whether [he] thought it would not be to 
 the interest of the state to assume an independent na 
 tionality." Considering that there had yet been little 
 news from Slidell, and none but of old date ; that 
 Napoleon " the Little' 7 was known to be emulous of 
 the great uncle, and would probably enjoy a chance to 
 recover part of what had once been considered Louisi 
 ana ; that he was, moreover, just at this moment known 
 to be bent on some scheme that would establish French 
 influence over Mexico ; and considering that Benjamin 
 knew how traditional French policy had favored the 
 independence of Texas in 1846, it is hardly to be 
 wondered at that he penned a dispatch to the commis 
 sioners filled with grave suspicions. Benjamin wrote 
 to Slidell : 
 
 1 i In plain language, we feel authorized to infer that 
 the French government has, for some interest of its 
 own, instructed some of its consular agents here to feel 
 the way, and if possible to provoke some movement 
 on the part of the state of Texas which shall result 
 in its withdrawal from the Confederacy. It is diffi 
 cult, if not impossible, on any other hypothesis, to 
 account for the conduct of these agents. . . . 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIOKS 297 
 
 "In endeavoring to account for such a course of 
 action on the part of the French government, I can 
 only attribute it to one or both of the following causes : 
 
 1. The Emperor of the French has determined to con 
 quer and hold Mexico as a colony, and is desirous of 
 interposing a weak power between his new colony and 
 the Confederate States, in order that he may feel secure 
 against any interference with his designs in Mexico. 
 
 2. The French government is desirous of securing for 
 itself an independent source of cotton supply, to offset 
 that possessed by Great Britain in India, and designs 
 to effect this purpose by taking under its protection 
 the state of Texas, which, after being acknowledged as 
 an independent republic, would, in its opinion, be in 
 effect as dependent on France, and as subservient to 
 French interests as if a French colony. . . . 
 
 "One other suggestion occurs to me, which you 
 may receive as purely conjectural on my part. It is 
 known to me personally that at the date of the annex 
 ation of Texas to the United States, Mr. Dubois de 
 Saligny, the present French minister in Mexico, and 
 who was at that time French charge d'affaires to the 
 republic of Texas, was vehemently opposed to the 
 annexation, and was active in endeavoring to obstruct 
 and prevent it. Even at that date the dispatches of 
 Mr. Guizot, which I have had an opportunity of reading, 
 were filled with arguments to show that the interests 
 of Texas were identical with those of France, and that 
 both would be promoted by the maintenance of a sepa 
 rate nationality in Texas. The intrigue now on foot, 
 therefore, accords completely with a policy in regard 
 to Texas that may be almost said to be traditional 
 with France ; and it is not impossible that the move 
 ment of the consular agents here has received its first 
 impulse from the French legation in Mexico, instead 
 of the cabinet of the Tuileries. . . . 
 
 "An enlarged and generous statesmanship would 
 seem to indicate so clearly that the establishment of 
 Southern independence on a secure basis (and with a 
 
298 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 strength sufficient to counterbalance the power of the 
 United States, as well as to prevent extensive French 
 colonization on our Southern border) would promote 
 the true interests of Great Britain, that we find it dif 
 ficult to account for her persistent refusal to recognize 
 our independence. The knowledge of a secret attempt 
 on the part of France to obtain separate advantages of 
 such vast magnitude may perhaps induce a change 
 in the views of the British cabinet. ... If you 
 come to the conclusion that these conjectures are well 
 founded, you are at liberty to make known to Her 
 Majesty's government the facts herein communicated, 
 either through the British minister at Paris, or by 
 concert with Mr. Mason." 
 
 In a postscript, written three days later, Benjamin 
 informs Slidell that he has become convinced that 
 M. Tabouelle was not acting in concert with M. Theron, 
 nor was in any way a party to the suspected intrigue ; 
 hence the order for his expulsion from the Confed 
 eracy, which had accompanied a similar order for the 
 expulsion of M. Theron, had been revoked. "It is 
 barely possible," he continues, " though I think not 
 probable, that Theron may have acted on his own 
 ideas of what he supposed would be agreeable to his 
 superiors, and not in consequence of instructions. The 
 whole matter is one of great delicacy, and I must leave 
 it to your own discretion how best to treat it, after 
 endeavoring to satisfy yourself whether Theron' s move 
 ments were dictated by the French cabinet." 
 
 The revelation of Benjamin's mistrust by the cap 
 ture of this dispatch would, of course, quite spoil the 
 French designs, if any, and necessitate a denial of 
 their bare existence. So things turned out ; and then, 
 the possible danger being gone by, Benjamin's suspi- 
 
DIPLOMATIC KELATIONS 299 
 
 cions could be made to appear unjust, his fears exag 
 gerated and ridiculous, his excitement that of one who 
 has found a mare's nest. Nevertheless, this has always 
 seemed to me a well- written dispatch, and one justi 
 fied by the facts as they appeared to him. Indeed, 
 it has not yet been shown that there were no grounds 
 for his doubts of Louis Napoleon, and that he did not 
 make a very shrewd guess at the true state of affairs. ' 
 Certainly, the dealings of the Emperor with Slidell, 
 which we must now take up, were such as to show him 
 "for crooked counsels fit.' 7 
 
 On April 14th, Slidell had written the Secretary of 
 State a detailed account of the interview between the 
 Emperor and Mr. Lindsay, a member of the British 
 Parliament, in regard to Southern affairs. Lindsay 
 and Eoebuck were among the most persistent cham 
 pions of the South in Parliament, and the former now 
 presented the cause to the Emperor most urgently, 
 hoping to elicit from him at least an expression of 
 opinion, perhaps also something more definite. In 
 the first interview, April llth, Napoleon had expressed 
 his earnest desire to see the war ended, and stated that 
 his government had twice made representations to 
 that effect to the British government, but had received 
 no definite response; such being the case, " he could 
 not again address the English ministry through the 
 official channels without some reason to believe that 
 his representations would receive a favorable response ; 
 . . . that he was prepared to act promptly and de 
 cidedly ; that he would at once dispatch a formidable 
 fleet to the mouth of the Mississippi, if England would 
 
 1 See Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 346, for similar suspicions on the part 
 of Adams. 
 
300 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 send an equal force j that they would demand free 
 egress and ingress for their merchantmen." 
 
 In his conviction that the Union could never be re 
 stored, he authorized Lindsay to report the substance 
 of this conversation to Lord Cowley, British ambas 
 sador at Paris. Lindsay having seen Lord Cowley, 
 and having ascertained that he was of the opinion 
 that the proper time for intervention had passed, had 
 another interview with Napoleon, and was urged to 
 see Lords Eussell and Palmerston on his return to 
 England, and communicate to them what had been 
 discussed ; nay, it was even suggested that he see 
 Lord Derby and Disraeli, leaders of the opposition. 
 It would not be proper, of course, for the Emperor to 
 hold communication with them, but Lindsay might 
 let them know what the former's views were. Mr. 
 Lindsay, become a confidential diplomat, was rather 
 offended when Lord Eussell, in reply to a note stating 
 that the writer was charged with an important mes 
 sage from Napoleon, declined to receive any com 
 munication from a foreign power except through the 
 regular channels. He saw Disraeli, however, who 
 " fully concurred in the views of the Eniperor," and 
 added that, "if France would take the initiative, any 
 course she might adopt to put an end to the present 
 state of American affairs, would be undoubtedly sup 
 ported by a large majority in Parliament, and know 
 ing this, Lord Eussell would give a reluctant assent, 
 to avoid what would otherwise certainly follow : a 
 change of ministry." These things Mr. Lindsay dis 
 cussed with the Emperor in another interview, on 
 April 18th, of which Slidell wrote again, on the same 
 date. Napoleon seemed even more favorably disposed 
 
DIPLOMATIC KELATIONS 301 
 
 than before, said Lindsay, and thoroughly displeased 
 by the inaction of the English authorities, his own 
 impulse being to make a friendly appeal to the Federal 
 government, and to accompany the appeal, if neces 
 sary, with a demonstration of force, to open the ports. 
 "The taking of New Orleans, which he did not antic 
 ipate, might render it inexpedient to act," said the 
 Emperor; "he would not decide at once, but would 
 wait for some days for further intelligence." 
 
 Before Slidell had anything more of importance to 
 say in his dispatches to Benjamin, there came the news 
 of the fall of that city. The large French element 
 in the population, more considerable in its proportions 
 then than now, the extensive and almost intimate re 
 lations in trade and even in social intercourse still kept 
 up between the Creoles and the old country, as well as 
 the sentiment that could so easily be roused in behalf 
 of this lost child of France, all these things had been 
 of weight in influencing Napoleon, if he should make 
 any attempt to raise the blockade, to do so for the 
 benefit of New Orleans. Now there was neither need 
 nor excuse for that demonstration in force at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi ; for Seward was assuring Mercier 
 that the blockade there was over, and that the port 
 would be opened with only such delay as formality 
 might necessitate. Nevertheless, the good intentions 
 of the French Emperor seemed still assured, and still 
 persisted in, though a new excuse for action must now 
 be found, if he ventured to move independently of 
 England. 
 
 Slidell wrote another encouraging dispatch on July 
 25th, giving an account of his own long interview with 
 Napoleon, on the 16th of that month, and with 
 
302 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Thouvenel on the 23d. 1 It was at this time that, as 
 soon as the turn of the conversation presented a 
 favorable opportunity, Slidell first spoke of the cotton 
 subsidy: "I then stated to the Emperor what I had 
 been instructed to propose. It did not seem disagree 
 able. He said, how am I to get the cotton ? I replied, 
 of course that depends on Your Majesty ; he will soon 
 have a fleet in the neighborhood of our coast strong 
 enough to keep it clear of every Federal cruiser " 
 this latter being in reference to the Mexican expedi 
 tion. "When speaking of the cotton subsidy," con 
 tinues Slidell, i i I told the Emperor that the proposition 
 was made exclusively to France, my colleague at 
 London not being aware of my authority to make it." 
 The exact terms of the offer are not given, since the 
 whole affair was rather of the nature of friendly con 
 versation at a private audience than a deliberate ap 
 plication for the aid of France ; but the suggestion was 
 presented to the Emperor, in the hope that he would 
 think it over and discuss it with his ministers, to 
 whom a more formal approach would then be made. 
 Accordingly, one week later, when Slidell conceived 
 that sufficient time had elapsed for this to percolate 
 through official channels from the Emperor, he sought 
 an interview with Thouvenel, Minister for Foreign Af 
 fairs, and made a definite proposition, which seemed 
 to interest the latter very much. After discussing 
 the proffered advantages to France, " as I was taking 
 leave, M. Thouvenel asked me to give him a brief 
 
 1 Keferences, unless when otherwise stated, are to my own notes 
 from the Pickett Papers ; but on Slidell 's interview, cf. Callahan, 
 p. 151, et seq. ; Bigelow, p. 116, et seq. ; and Eichardson, Vol. II, pp. 
 270-272, 288, etc. 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIONS 303 
 
 written memorandum of the propositions, in confi 
 dence, for his own use and that of the Emperor. I 
 sent him one unsigned, copy of which you will find 
 herewith. . . . He asked me if any similar propo 
 sitions had been or would be made to England. I re 
 plied, 'Certainly not' ; that our commissioner there 
 was ignorant of them, although I intended to give him 
 the information as soon as I found a safe opportunity. " 
 
 The memorandum submitted to the French minister, 
 which, like other vital parts of this dispatch, Slidell 
 was careful to put in cypher, reads: " Cotton to the 
 value of one hundred million francs, estimated on the 
 basis of the prices current at Havre on 23d July, de 
 ducting freight and all other ordinary charges. Free 
 importation during the war of all merchandise under 
 French flag, without payment of duties or imposts of 
 any kind, and for a limited term after the war of every 
 sort of merchandise of French origin. As the Con 
 federate States are now without almost every article of 
 merchandise of foreign fabric or origin, importations 
 must necessarily yield enormous profits, and their pro 
 ceeds at a moderate calculation represent at least five 
 hundred thousand bales of cotton to be shipped to 
 France. Havre will then be the great entrepot of 
 cotton. Alliances defensive and offensive for Mexican 
 affairs. For this last commissioner has no express in 
 structions, but he has large discretion." 
 
 Whether or not Slidell had exceeded the warrant of 
 his instructions in this last matter, which he had also 
 broached in the same manner to the Emperor, is, 
 perhaps, open to question. Certainly, the tone of 
 Benjamin's dispatch of October 17th, quoted from 
 above, was not in accord with a proposal of alliance, 
 
304 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 offensive and defensive, for the conquest of Mexico. 
 But Slidell's offer was not disavowed, nor was disap 
 proval of it expressed. When Benjamin wrote on 
 October 17th he did not know what use the envoy had 
 made of the authorization to buy French recognition ; 
 moreover, his suspicions of France then concerned 
 Texas ; there is no positive disapproval of the French 
 design to conquer Mexico. Therefore, I should say 
 that Benjamin would have sustained the commissioner 
 in this offer if the object aimed at had been attained 
 through it. 1 
 
 During the summer, however, Napoleon kept away 
 from Paris, politics, and Slidell, as far as possible ; 
 and when cornered, said the time was not propitious 
 for action. At length Thouvenel was replaced by 
 Drouyn de FHuys, and Slidell must seek favor with 
 the new minister, whom he found (October 26th) 
 " ignorant of [the] purport" of the propositions made 
 to his predecessor and to the Emperor, i l but they 
 seemed to impress him strongly. 77 Having thus paved 
 the way for further negotiations with the new servant, 
 Slidell again got a chance at the master, and found 
 him quite as full of fair promise as ever. "The 
 Emperor asked why we had not created a navy ; he 
 said that we ought to have one ; that a few ships would 
 have inflicted fatal injury on the Federal commerce, 
 and that with three or four powerful steamers we could 
 have opened some of our ports. I replied . . . 
 that the great difficulty was not to build but to man 
 and arm them, under the existing regulations for the 
 preservation of neutrality ; that if the Emperor would 
 
 1 Mason distinctly approved of, and in fact, suggested a similar 
 alliance, September 4, 1863 ; see Mason, p. 447. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 305 
 
 only give some kind of verbal assurance that his police 
 would not observe too closely when we wished to put 
 on board guns and men, we would gladly avail our 
 selves of it. He said, ' Why could you not have them 
 built as for the Italian government ? I do not think 
 it would be difficult, but I will consult the Minister of 
 Marine about it.' " 
 
 With what comprehension and delight this hint was 
 received at Eichmond we can readily imagine. Then, 
 too, SlidelFs dispatch of November llth, must have 
 echoed, a sursum corda, in the hearts in that city ; 
 for it reported that the Emperor had written to Mercier 
 on October 30th, directing him to intimate to Seward 
 in no uncertain terms the opinion of Napoleon that 
 the independence of the Confederate States was l i unfait 
 accompli " ; and also that a circular had been sent to 
 the European powers (England and Eussia) inviting 
 their cooperation in an appeal to Washington and to 
 Eichmond for a suspension of hostilities and raising 
 of the blockade. 
 
 And now, while cheering news came from Slidell, 
 the fortunes of war again opportunely befriended the 
 Confederacy. Another well-meaning but incompetent 
 Federal officer, reluctantly forced into a command to 
 which he felt himself unequal, confronted Lee at 
 Fredericksburg. With a gallant and hopeless assault 
 upon the fortified heights held by the Confederates, 
 Burnside had wasted the blood and shattered the con 
 fidence of his splendid army. It is another crushing 
 blow for the Federals in their insane endeavor to 
 conquer the South, said the press of Europe ; while 
 the victor, grieved at the slaughter, wrote to his wife 
 on Christmas Day : " But what a cruel thing is war j 
 
306 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar 
 the purest joys and happiness God has given us in this 
 world ; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for 
 our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this 
 beautiful world ! I pray that, on this day when only 
 peace and good- will are preached to mankind, better 
 thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn 
 them to peace. " ' His army, he continues, was never 
 in better condition, and he only regrets that the with 
 drawal of Burnside beyond the Eappahannock without 
 another fight baffled hopes of such a victory as might 
 have proved decisive. 
 
 Throughout the winter and early spring of 1863, 
 despite the increasing privations of the people and the 
 sufferings of the soldiers, the tone of sentiment in the 
 South was optimistic. Why does the Emperor lose his 
 precious opportunity in vacillation? writes Benjamin 
 to Slidell, on March 24th: " This war may not last 
 beyond the present year, perhaps not beyond the 
 sickly season of a Southern summer, and yet he suffers 
 himself to be restrained from decisive action by 
 alternate menaces and assurances uttered with no 
 torious mendacity by the leaders of the frantic mob 
 which now controls the government of the United 
 States." 
 
 In an earlier dispatch he had informed Slidell of 
 the visit of Erlanger to Eichmond to negotiate for the 
 Confederate loan. Instead of $25, 000, 000, the govern 
 ment took only $15,000,000, at 77, interest seven per 
 cent. ; and would perhaps have declined that, but for 
 the belief that the placing of the loan in France at this 
 time might have some good political effect. 7 
 
 1 K. E. Lee, Letters of General Lee, p. 89. 2 See Mason, p. 351. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 307 
 
 Napoleon, however, was no longer really vacillating ; 
 lie had gone as far as he dared to go without England's 
 company, though he continued to dally with the Con 
 federates for some time. On January 8th, taking 
 advantage of the still fresh tidings of the Federal dis 
 aster at Fredericksburg, and of the undoubted distress 
 among French operatives consequent upon the cutting 
 off of the cotton supply, Slidell sent to the Emperor, 
 through his private secretary, Mocquard, a renewed 
 demand for the separate recognition of the Confederacy 
 by France. Napoleon dictated a courteous note, to be 
 delivered through Mercier at Washington, offering 
 friendly mediation between the belligerents, and sug 
 gesting an armistice. It was duly presented to Seward, 
 and by him to Lincoln, early in February, receiving a 
 calm and polite refusal, accompanied by reasons, quite 
 in contrast to the menacing words with which the mere 
 suggestion of such interference on the part of the 
 British government had been met. 1 
 
 In England itself at this same time the effect of the 
 victory of Lee over Burnside was not a little offset by 
 the constantly increasing influence of Lincoln's Eman 
 cipation Proclamation, which had now received the 
 final touch, on January 1, 1863, that was to start it on 
 its way, no longer a mere piece of ' ' campaign thunder," 
 but an active force working for the disintegration of 
 slavery at home and for its discrediting abroad. True, 
 the opinion of the upper classes and of many influential 
 journals was that the President's Proclamation was 
 a hypocritical and iniquitous attempt to curry favor 
 and to stir up a slave rebellion. Thus the Times 
 declared that Lincoln was calling "to his aid the 
 
 1 Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 348. 
 
308 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 execrable expedient of a servile insurrection. Egypt 
 is destroyed, but his heart is hardened, and he will not 
 let the people go" ; then the Saturday Review fulmi 
 nated against " the American lawgiver [who] not only 
 confiscates his neighbor's slaves, but orders the slaves 
 to cut their masters 7 throats' 7 ; and Mason was writing 
 to Benjamin, 1 "This, I think, will be the judgment 
 passed upon it [i. e., the Proclamation] by all except 
 the most ignorant classes in England." 
 
 Mason was partly right, for even Lord Eussell was 
 commenting on the Proclamation to Lord Lyons as a 
 very questionable war measure, and one that seemed to 
 embody no principle really hostile to slavery, but 
 merely " vengeance on the slave owner.' 7 However, 
 in spite of aristocratic criticism of Lincoln 7 s act, it met 
 with increasingly hearty approval from the mass of 
 the people ; and in this same dispatch Mason gives a 
 more judicious opinion : " Though I doubt not a word 
 from the minister, suggesting that the time has arrived 
 for recognition, would meet with unanimous response 
 in the affirmative, both from ministerial and oppo 
 sition benches in the House of Commons, I do not 
 think Lord Palmerston is disposed to speak that word. 
 Nor will the Tories make an issue with him on Ameri 
 can affairs. The fact is that parties are so nearly 
 balanced in the House, and, as it would seem, in the 
 country, that they are very wary in measuring strength 
 with their opponents. 7 ' In other words, neither party 
 was willing to risk favor with the people by any such 
 espousal of the Confederate cause as would provoke 
 resentment. 
 
 In the meanwhile public mass meetings expressed 
 1 Dispatch of January 15 ; see Mason, p. 371. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 309 
 
 sympathy with the North, and the period of acute dis 
 tress among the cotton operatives was painfully pass 
 ing. To them the war could no longer be made to 
 appear a war for Southern independence and against 
 Northern conquest ; neither they nor their betters 
 in England understood much about the constitution 
 of the Union, but they instinctively disliked slav 
 ery : the war was now a war for the abolition of 
 slavery. 
 
 Benjamin fully understood the advantage that his 
 adversary would derive from the dissemination of the 
 idea that the war was really a war of emancipation ; 
 but that idea had been disseminated. The slavery 
 question cropped up, about this time, in a new form. 
 Intimations having been received in Eichmond from 
 Mason * that the opinion was freely expressed in Eng 
 land and elsewhere that the successful establishment of 
 the Confederacy would be followed by the repeal of the 
 clause of the Confederate Constitution prohibiting the 
 African slave trade, Benjamin wrote an elaborate cir 
 cular (dated January 15th), which he sent to Mason 
 as well as the other representatives abroad. Instruc 
 tions had recently (November 19th) been furnished to 
 Mr. L. Q. C. Lamar, as commissioner to Eussia, from 
 whom the Confederacy might get an introduction into 
 the society of nations ; but Mr. Lamar found no wel 
 come awaiting him. He sent word to the Eussian of 
 ficials that he had come, and, like Bob Acres, was 
 told, in substance, "Well, you can go away again." 
 This had not yet happened, however, when Benjamin 
 forwarded him a copy of the circular, and this 
 copy fell into the hands of the enemy, and was pub- 
 
 Mason, p. 373. 
 
310 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 lislied. ' There was no secret in the paper, nor can it 
 in justice be regarded as anything but an entirely 
 proper and judicious statement of the position assumed 
 by the Confederate government ; yet it was susceptible 
 of misrepresentation, and was misrepresented. 
 
 In substance, Benjamin's circular stated that the 
 Confederate government had no control whatever over 
 the slave-trade, which was undoubtedly true : 
 
 " The states, by the Constitution, . . . unani 
 mously stipulated ' that the importation of negroes of 
 the African race from any foreign country other than the 
 slave-holding states or territories of the United States 
 of America is hereby forbidden j and Congress is re 
 quired to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent 
 the same > (Article I, section 9). It will thus be seen 
 that no power is delegated to the Confederate govern 
 ment over this subject, but that it is included in the 
 class ... of powers exercised directly by 
 the states. . . . Any attempt on the part of the 
 treaty-making power of this government to prohibit 
 the African slave-trade, in addition to the insuperable 
 objections above suggested, would leave open the im 
 plication that the same power has authority to permit 
 such introduction. No such implication can be sanc 
 tioned by us. The government unequivocally and 
 absolutely denies its possession of any power whatever 
 over the subject, and cannot entertain any propositions 
 in relation to it. While it is totally beneath the dig 
 nity of this government to give assurances for the pur 
 pose of vindicating itself from any unworthy suspicions 
 of its good faith on this subject that may be dissemi 
 nated by the agents of the United States, it may not 
 
 1 Cf. Callahan, p. 95 ; N. Y. Times, April 1, 1863. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 311 
 
 be improper that you should point out the superior 
 efficacy of our constitutional provision to any treaty 
 stipulations we could make. ... A treaty might 
 be abrogated by a party temporarily in power in our 
 country, at the sole risk of disturbing amicable rela 
 tions with a foreign power. The Constitution, unless by 
 an approach to unanimity, could not be changed with 
 out the destruction of this government itself. . . . 
 
 1 i The policy of the Confederacy is as fixed and immu 
 table on this subject as the imperfection of human 
 nature permits human resolve to be. No additional 
 agreements, treaties, or stipulations can commit these 
 states to the prohibition of the African slave-trade 
 with more binding efficacy than those they have them 
 selves devised. . . . We trust, therefore, that no 
 unnecessary discussions on this matter will be intro 
 duced into your negotiations. If, unfortunately, this 
 reliance should prove ill-founded, you will decline 
 continuing negotiations on your side, and transfer 
 them to us at home, where, in such event, they could 
 be conducted with greater facility and advantage, 
 under the direct supervision of the President." 
 
 The Confederacy was not to have the opportunity 
 of making a treaty with any power ; but, in contem 
 plation of successful negotiations, it was proper that 
 the Secretary of State should instruct his subordinates 
 that the Confederate President and Senate were incom 
 petent to consider at all a treaty involving the slave- 
 trade. If taken in good part, his words bear no 
 sinister interpretations ; but just as ill-informed or 
 malevolent critics had carped at Lincoln's Proclama 
 tion of Emancipation because it decreed abolition only 
 where his authority was not recognized, viz., within 
 
312 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the Confederacy, while it maintained slavery in those 
 places under his control, even so the evil-disposed 
 saw in this paper the hint that the South would, 
 if it could, reopen the slave-trade. Its capture and 
 publication, therefore, were unfortunate. 
 
 Meanwhile, Benjamin had received Slidell's dispatch 
 containing the hint that the Confederates might build 
 vessels of war in France. Instructions were sent him 
 to make sure of the Emperor's good faith in the matter, 
 which then passed for a time under the control of the 
 Secretary of the Navy and of his most important repre 
 sentative in Europe, Captain Bulloch. 1 But to Benja 
 min Slidell still reported the steps in the negotiations. 
 After an interview with a shipbuilder, who sought him 
 out, and who was known to be in the confidence of the 
 Emperor ; after an interview with Drouyn de 1'Huys, 
 who intimated that he would shut his eyes and not see 
 what was not called to his attention ; and after farther 
 reassuring promises from the Minister of Marine and 
 from Louis Napoleon himself, through the shipbuilder, 
 " that there would be no difficulty on the subject/' 
 Slidell felt confident that all would be well. Cap 
 tain Bulloch, kept informed by him, then made provi 
 sional contracts for the building and equipping of four 
 corvettes of the Alabama, type, and later for two iron 
 clad men-of-war. It was no wonder that Benjamin 
 was " entirely convinced of the hearty sympathy of 
 the Emperor,' 7 or that he wrote to Slidell (June 22d) 
 contrasting the bullying of England by Seward and 
 Adams with their self-restraint toward France, and 
 praising "the acumen of Mr. Seward in discovering 
 
 ^or fuller accounts, see Bulloch, Vol. II, Chap. I; Bigelow, 
 passim ; and Slidell's dispatches, Pickett Papers. 
 
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 313 
 
 (rhere it was safe to threaten, and where it was pru 
 dent to refrain. " 
 
 While his efforts thus seemed to be rewarded with 
 some success in France, and while there was still pros 
 pect of more Alabamas slipping away from England, 
 the trend of public opinion and the attitude of the 
 British government were not so favorable. Consider 
 able effort had already been made to influence popular 
 feeling in Europe through the newspapers. Mr. 
 Benjamin sent out Edwin De Leon, "for the special 
 purpose of enlightening public opinion in Europe 
 through the press,' 7 and with him the Secretary of 
 State kept up a correspondence. A considerable 
 fund of secret-service money was put at his disposal, 
 and he was instructed to use it in subsidies where it 
 might prove effective. De Leon was a journalist of 
 some experience, and was expected to accomplish 
 a great deal with the papers, especially in France and 
 England, where he went first. Having done there all 
 that he conceived necessary for the time, he wrote, 
 suggesting that with more funds he might be more 
 useful. Benjamin replied on December 13, 1862 : 
 "I will take measures to forward you additional 
 means to enable you to extend the field of your 
 operations, and to embrace, if possible, the press of 
 Central Europe in your campaign. Austria, and 
 Prussia, as well as the smaller Germanic powers, seem 
 to require intelligence of the true condition of our 
 affairs, and of the nature of our struggle, and it is to 
 be hoped you may find means to act with efficiency in 
 molding public opinion in those countries. ' ' 
 
 It was at this time, we recall, that Benjamin was 
 sending out Lamar in the vain hope of finding Russia 
 
314 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 willing to receive a Confederate envoy. He and De 
 Leon discovered that Central Europe was hopelessly 
 against them where it took any interest whatever in 
 the matter. The most promising fields were France and 
 England, and there De Leon carried out Benjamin's 
 wishes as best he might by publishing scraps of South 
 ern news and pro-Southern articles in papers and re 
 views. His usefulness in France, however, was some 
 what curtailed by his having incurred the not unrea 
 sonable resentment of Mr. Slidell, who complained to 
 Benjamin 1 of the agent's preposterous assumption of 
 diplomatic airs, and consequent interference with him, 
 and seriously questioned the extent of his knowledge 
 of and influence over Parisian journals. With this, 
 however, we have nothing to do further than to men 
 tion it. In England several agents were relied upon 
 quite as much as De Leon to mold public opinion. 
 Mr. Mason himself understood this to be part of his 
 duty, and called attention to another 8 who helped, 
 though not, of course, a Confederate emissary ; this 
 was Mr. James Spence, who figured prominently in 
 the negotiation of the cotton bonds of the Confederacy, 
 and whose speech for the South was always at com 
 mand. But, feeling that back-stairs dealings with the 
 press did not accord with the diplomatic status he 
 wished Mr. Mason to assume, Benjamin confided the 
 press matters and other non- diplomatic business to 
 Henry Hotze, who, like De Leon, had been a journal 
 ist, and who now, as commercial agent of the Confed 
 eracy in London, was to occupy a very difficult and 
 necessary post. With his activities in other direc- 
 
 1 Cf . Callahan, p. 97. 2 Mason, pp. 271, 295. 
 
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 315 
 
 tions, in connection with other departments of the 
 Confederate government, we need not deal ; what was 
 expected of him by the State Department may be best 
 learned through a few extracts from one of Benjamin's 
 dispatches : l " You are aware that your position of 
 commercial agent was conferred principally with the 
 view of rendering effective your services in using the 
 press of Great Britain in aid of our cause ; and until 
 our recognition all other objects must be made sub 
 ordinate to that end. . . . Your plan of engaging 
 the services of writers employed in the leading daily 
 papers, and thereby securing not only their coopera 
 tion, but educating them into such a knowledge of our 
 affairs as will enable them to counteract effectually the 
 misrepresentations of the Northern agents, appears to 
 be judicious and effective ; and after consultation with 
 the President he is satisfied that an assignment to the 
 support of your efforts of two thousand pounds per 
 annum out of the appropriation confided to him for 
 secret service will be well spent. " 
 
 But the Confederacy could not thus purchase golden 
 opinions; despite the earnest efforts of the London 
 Index, 2 a weekly paper chiefly sustained by the vari 
 ous press agents, its best advocates there were the 
 honest British love of fair play and the inspiring vic 
 tories of the Confederate generals. When the latter 
 continued, so did the admiration of the English ; but as 
 the slaughter of one Northern army was relentlessly 
 followed by the bringing forward of another to the 
 slaughter, as the deadly and heroic blows of the armies 
 of the South seemed to leave no more wound than 
 
 1 January 16, 1863 ; see Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 356, note. 
 'Callahan, p. 92. 
 
316 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 upon water, the confidence of her foreign friends was 
 shaken. 
 
 In military affairs, during the spring and summer 
 of 1863 as one year before, the Confederacy seemed 
 ever on the eve of attaining such success as would end 
 the contest victoriously for her, and yet never quite 
 succeeded. At Ohancellorsville, on May 3d, Lee shat 
 tered another Federal army and discredited another 
 Federal general ; but though " Fighting Joe" Hook 
 er's reputation was gone, Lee had lost the worth of 
 many a brigade in u Stonewall " Jackson, who there fell 
 mortally wounded after one more triumphant demon 
 stration of his genius. While in the Southwest the 
 Federals had yet made poor use of their possession of 
 New Orleans, and had been driven back from Vicks- 
 burg, their armies now gathered in fatal folds about 
 that last great stronghold on the Mississippi, and Lee in 
 Virginia once more staked all upon a daring campaign 
 of invasion. But Yicksburg surrendered on the fourth 
 of July, while each side was resting from the shock 
 of Gettysburg. Again, as at Antietam, Lee had 
 failed in a task that was too great; and this time, 
 though his splendid army held its fragments together 
 and safely crossed the Potomac, it had suffered a de 
 feat from whose consequences nothing but his skill 
 could have saved it. 
 
 Just before the news of these disasters reached Eng 
 land the Southern sympathizers there had made an 
 other demonstration. Mr. Eoebuck introduced into 
 Parliament a resolution that the government should 
 enter into negotiations with the other great powers 
 looking to intervention in American affairs, and sup 
 ported it by a speech strongly in favor of the Con- 
 
DIPLOMATIC EELATIONS 317 
 
 federacy, in which he detailed an interview with Napo 
 leon to show that that monarch " was stronger than ever 
 in favor of recognizing the South. ' ' But the motion was 
 debated in no friendly spirit by members of the domi 
 nant party j the reference to Napoleon was ill-judged, 
 and led to denial, charge, and countercharge between 
 him and Eoebuck ; and it was subsequently with 
 drawn by its author on July 13th. Hotze wrote Ben 
 jamin ten days later that the defeat at Gettysburg, 
 coupled with the fall of Yicksburg, had spread very 
 general dismay. And Confederate securities, buoyant 
 in early spring, were now unsteady, and soon on the 
 downward grade. l 
 
 Before this time, however, the secretary was being 
 wrought up to the conviction that there was little 
 present hope of recognition from England, and the 
 strained relations with the British consuls in the Con 
 federacy were rapidly approaching a crisis. In a dis 
 patch to Mason, 2 June 6th, Benjamin gives very dis 
 passionately his side of the case, which we shall quote, 
 with the prefatory statement that this particular quar 
 rel was with Mr. Moore, British consul at Eichmond, 
 who had exerted himself in behalf of two men seeking 
 to evade military service under the false pretense- 
 there seems no doubt of this that they were British 
 subjects, and who had expressed himself very indis 
 creetly in connection with the matter : 
 
 "The President, 77 says Mr. Benjamin, " has not 
 deemed it necessary to interpose any obstacle to the 
 
 l Pickett Papers; Mason, pp. 419-427, 431, et seq, ; Khodes, Vol. 
 IV, pp. 374-376. 
 2 Mason, pp. 432, et seq. 
 
318 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 continued residence of British consuls within the Con 
 federacy by virtue of exequaturs granted by the former 
 government. His course has been consistently guided 
 y the principles which underlie the whole structure 
 of our government. The state of Virginia having 
 delegated to the government of the United States by 
 the Constitution of 1787, the power of controlling its 
 foreign relations, became bound by the action of that 
 government in its grant of an exequatur to Consul 
 Moore. When Virginia seceded, withdrew the powers 
 delegated to the government of the United States, and 
 conferred them on this government, the exequatur 
 granted to Consul Moore was not thereby invalidated. 
 On these grounds the President has hitherto 
 steadily resisted all influences which have been exerted 
 to induce him to exact of foreign consuls that they 
 should ask for an exequatur from the government as a 
 condition of the continued exercise of their functions. 
 It was not deemed compatible with the dignity of the 
 government to extort, by enforcing the withdrawal of 
 national protection from neutral residents, such in 
 ferential recognition of its independence as might be 
 supposed to be implied in the request for an exequatur. 
 The consuls of foreign nations, therefore, established 
 within the Confederacy, who were in the possession of 
 an exequatur issued by the government of the United 
 States prior to the formation of the Confederacy, have 
 been maintained and respected in the exercise of their 
 respective functions, and the same respect and pro 
 tection will be accorded to them in the future so long 
 as they confine themselves to the sphere of their duties 
 and seek neither to evade nor defy the legitimate au 
 thority of this government within its own jurisdiction. 
 " There has grown up an abuse, however, the result 
 of this tolerance on the part of the President, which is 
 too serious to be longer allowed. Great Britain has 
 deemed it for her interest to refuse acknowledging the 
 patent fact of the existence of this Confederacy as an 
 independent nation. It is scarcely to be expected that 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIONS 319 
 
 we should, by our own conduct, imply assent to the 
 justice or propriety of that refusal. 
 
 11 Now, the British minister accredited to the gov 
 ernment of our enemies assumes the power to issue 
 instructions to, and exercise authority over the consuls 
 of Great Britain residing within this country : nay, 
 even to appoint agents to supervise British interests in 
 the Confederate States. This course of conduct plainly 
 ignores the existence of this government, and implies 
 the continuance of the relations between that minister 
 and the consuls of Her Majesty resident within the 
 Confederacy which existed prior to withdrawal of these 
 states from the Union. 
 
 "It is further the assertion of a right on the part of 
 Lord Lyons, by virtue of his credentials as Her Majesty's 
 minister at Washington, to exercise the power and 
 authority of a minister accredited to Eichmond, and 
 officially received as such by the President. Under 
 these circumstances, and because of similar action by 
 other ministers, the President has felt it his duty to 
 order that no direct communication be permitted be 
 tween the consuls of neutral nations in the Confederacy 
 and the functionaries of those nations residing within 
 the enemy's country." 
 
 Benjamin exposes in diplomatic phraseology what 
 must have been in plain speech an intolerable situ 
 ation ; with the British consuls under the authority of 
 and receiving their instructions through the British 
 minister in Washington, friction could hardly have 
 been avoided. The fact that Moore's exequatur was 
 now revoked is but a symptom of the growing irritation 
 against England, which was to be further increased by 
 a similar incident. In the autumn of 1862 Mr. Magee, 
 British consul at Mobile, had assisted the state of 
 Alabama to send through the blockade, on a British 
 man-of-war, a large sum in specie to pay interest on 
 
320 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 the state bonds to foreign creditors. Immediately 
 upon learning of this flagrant breach of the Queen's 
 proclamation of neutrality, Lord Lyons dismissed Mr. 
 Magee, in spite of the earnest protest of Mr. Benjamin 
 against a policy which could not but react injuriously 
 upon the credit of the state of Alabama. In report 
 ing the affair to Lord Russell, the British minister at 
 Washington conceded the reasonableness of Mr. Ben 
 jamin's objection to "the connection between this 
 legation and the consulates in the South, [as] em 
 barrassing and inconvenient, with regard both to the 
 government of the United States and to the de facto 
 government of the Confederate States." 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin's complaint concerning the dis 
 missal of Mr. Magee by Her Majesty's government," he 
 continued, "is less reasonable. ... To export 
 specie from Mobile was a manifest breach of the 
 blockade of that port. . . . But it is not sur 
 prising that this affair should have increased the sus 
 ceptibility of the Confederates with regard to the con 
 nection between this legation and the Southern con 
 sulates." J Just after the culmination of the quarrel 
 with Moore, this Mobile affair developed a sequel. 
 Benjamin informed Mason 2 in a dispatch of June llth, 
 that he had just learned that a Mr. Cridland, who had 
 sometimes acted as consul at Eichmond during Moore's 
 absence, had gone to Mobile and there exhibited cre 
 dentials and served the part of consul to succeed 
 Magee, under instructions from Washington. This 
 was immediately resented, while Mason was directed 
 
 1 Callahan, p. 177, et seq. ; Montague Bernard, Neutrality of Great 
 Britain, p. 472. 
 
 2 Mason, p. 436. 
 
DIPLOMATIC KELATIONS 321 
 
 to lay before the British government the views of the 
 Confederate authorities, expressed temperately but 
 without hesitation. Mr. Cridland was informed 
 that he could not be permitted to " exercise consular 
 functions at Mobile, and it [was] intimated to him that 
 his choice of some other state than Alabama for his 
 residence would be agreeable to this government." 
 
 As the summer wore on and Mr. Mason continued to 
 report an unfriendly attitude on the part of Great 
 Britain, and especially as it became manifest that 
 the two Confederate rams building at Birkenhead would 
 hardly be allowed to repeat the Alabama's bold trick 
 and escape, it became equally manifest that even the 
 attempt at diplomatic relations with England would 
 soon have to cease. The powerful ranis at Birkenhead 
 would have been of incalculable service to the Con 
 federacy ; for with such vessels, as the famous Virginia 
 (or Merrimac) had demonstrated, the fleet of wooden 
 blockading boats before Charleston, Wilmington, and 
 Mobile might have been brushed away, or blown " as 
 high as the sky, to let King Cotton and his army pass 
 by." When the first fears of interference with the 
 construction of these vessels arose, Benjamin had 
 instructed Mason to arrange for their transfer to French 
 or other neutral flags, and Captain Bulloch had, with 
 great address, succeeded in selling them to French 
 owners, with whom he had a secret understanding that 
 the men-of-war, once safely out of British waters, should 
 be resold to the Confederacy. * But though the blind was 
 well constructed, Benjamin apparently perceived that 
 it would never successfully undergo the scrutiny of 
 
 Bulloch, Vol. I, pp. 376-460; Rhodes, Vol. IV p. 377, 
 et seq. 
 
322 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Adams. At all events, without waiting for farther 
 news of the efforts to get the vessels out of Birkenhead, 
 he wrote to Mason : ' 
 
 " The perusal of the recent debates in the British 
 Parliament satisfies the President that the government 
 of Her Majesty has determined to decline the over 
 tures made through you for establishing, by treaty, 
 friendly relations between the two governments, and 
 entertains no intentions of receiving you as the ac 
 credited minister of this government near the British 
 court. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, your continued resi 
 dence in London is neither conducive to the interests 
 nor consistent with the dignity of this government, and 
 the President therefore requests that you consider your 
 mission at an end, and that you withdraw, with your 
 secretary, from London. 
 
 " In arriving at this conclusion, it gives me pleasure 
 to say that the President is entirely satisfied with your 
 own conduct of the delicate mission confided to you, 
 and that it is in no want of proper effort on your part 
 that the necessity for your recall has originated. 
 
 1 i If you find that it is in accordance with usage, to 
 give notice of your intended withdrawal to Earl Russell, 
 you will, of course, conform to precedent in that re 
 spect. ' ? 
 
 Reluctant to risk the loss of any advantage that 
 might accrue through a possible, if improbable, change 
 of attitude on the part of the British government, 
 Benjamin accompanied this formal dispatch with a 
 private note for the eyes of the envoy alone, leaving it 
 to his discretion as to whether the order to withdraw 
 1 Mason, p. 449. 
 
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 323 
 
 from London should be obeyed immediately or disre 
 garded, ' ' in the event of any marked or decisive change 
 in the policy of the British cabinet before your receipt 
 of the dispatch. Although no such change is antici 
 pated, it is not deemed prudent to ignore altogether its 
 possibility, and it is in this view of the case that dis 
 cretion is left you as to your action. In the absence of 
 some important and marked change of conduct on the 
 part of Great Britain, however, the President desires 
 that your action on the instructions in [the dispatch] be 
 as prompt as convenient." 
 
 The authorization to withdraw, hardly unwelcome, 
 was received by Mr. Mason on September 14th. Noth 
 ing had softened the heart of Russell which, indeed, 
 had been but further hardened against the South after 
 the reading of Adams's famous note of September 5th, 
 in regard to the imminent escape of the two rams at 
 Birkenhead : u It would be superfluous in me to point 
 out to your lordship that this is war." The vessels, 
 so desperately needed in the Confederacy, were de 
 tained. But the prudent envoy waited to consult 
 with Slidell about the propriety of obeying the instruc 
 tions to withdraw, of which he himself had no sort of 
 doubt. There was, indeed, nothing else to do, and 
 so, on the 21st, Mr. Mason addressed a note to Lord 
 Russell communicating the instructions received from 
 the State Department and taking formal leave. Ac 
 cording as one views it, believing, on the one hand, 
 that England's course saved the world from another 
 such calamity as war between her and the United 
 States; or holding, on the other, that Seward and 
 Adams were merely uttering empty threats and that 
 the proverbially haughty Briton humiliated his nation 
 
324 JUDAH P. BENJAMIK 
 
 by tameness under such threats there is a note of the 
 pathetic or of the sarcastic iu Lord Eussell's reply 
 (September 25th), that the reasons which had induced 
 him to decline Mason's overtures were " still in force," 
 and that he regretted that " circumstances have pre 
 vented my cultivating your personal acquaintance, 
 which, in a different state of affairs, I should have 
 done with much pleasure and satisfaction." Five 
 days later the Confederate commissioner shook the 
 dust of London if there be any from his feet. 1 
 
 So terminated, in utter barrenness, the attempt at 
 diplomatic intercourse with England on the part of 
 what Lord Eussell used to style, offensively, "the 
 so-called Confederate States." Shortly after Mason's 
 withdrawal, and, indeed, before news of it had been 
 received in Eichmond, the difficulty about the British 
 consuls reached its culmination. Again it was through 
 an interference with the military service of the Con 
 federacy that another British consul, Mr. Fullarton, at 
 Savannah, offended. There was much correspondence 
 between him and Governor Brown, of Georgia, and 
 with the Confederate government ; we may most read 
 ily dispose of it by turning to a dispatch of Ben 
 jamin to Slidell, dated October 8th, reviewing the 
 history of the relations with British consuls, and en 
 closing a copy of the final letter to Mr. Fullarton from 
 the Secretary of State. 8 In this Mr. Benjamin writes 
 to the consul: "Your letters of the 1st and 3d in 
 stant have been received. You inform this govern 
 ment that, 'under your instructions you have felt it 
 
 1 Mason, pp. 451-456. 
 
 2 This dispatch was capfcnred and published; see N. Y. Times. 
 Oct. 20,il863. 
 
DIPLOMATIC BELATIOSTS 325 
 
 to be your duty to advise British subjects, that while 
 they ought to acquiesce in the service required so long 
 as it is restricted to the maintenance of internal peace 
 and order, whenever they shall be brought into actual 
 conflict with the forces of the United States, whether 
 under the state or Confederate government, the service 
 so required is such as they cannot be expected to per 
 form. 7 . . . 
 
 " In a communication from the acting British consul 
 in Charleston, to the military authorities, he also has 
 informed them that' 7 [his instructions are similar to 
 Fullarton's]. . . . 
 
 "It thus appears that the consular agents of the 
 British government have been instructed not to con 
 fine themselves to an appeal for redress, either to 
 courts of justice or to this government, whenever they 
 may conceive that grounds exist for complaint against 
 the Confederate authorities in their treatment of British 
 subjects (an appeal which has in no case been made 
 without receiving just consideration), but that they 
 assume the power of determining for themselves 
 whether enlisted soldiers of the Confederacy are prop 
 erly bound to its service ; that they even arrogate the 
 right to interfere directly with the execution of the 
 Confederate laws, and to advise soldiers of the Confed 
 erate armies to throw down their arms in the face of 
 the enemy. 
 
 " This assumption of jurisdiction by foreign officials 
 within the territory of the Confederacy, and this en 
 croachment on its sovereignty cannot be tolerated for 
 a moment ; and the President has had no hesitation in 
 directing that all consuls and consular agents of the 
 British government be notified that they can no longer 
 
326 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 be permitted to exercise their functions or even reside 
 within the limits of the Confederacy. 
 
 " I am directed, therefore, by the President to com 
 municate to you this order, that you promptly depart 
 from the Confederacy, and that in the meantime you 
 cease to exercise any consular functions within its 
 limits." 
 
 Coming so closely after the breaking off of such 
 relations as could, in diplomatic fiction, be presumed 
 to subsist through Mason's official presence in London, 
 this expulsion of the British consuls might very easily 
 be made to appear an act of petulant retaliation. 
 Undoubtedly the feelings of the Confederate Secre 
 tary of State were considerably exacerbated against 
 England ; but we have seen that the existing relations 
 with the British consuls had long constituted a serious 
 embarrassment. This awkward situation had now ter 
 minated as it could hardly have failed to terminate. 
 Its coincidence with Mason's recall, however, was un 
 fortunate. Among some of the people there seems to 
 have been not a little exultation at what they erro 
 neously considered a slap in the face for England after 
 all her insolence to Mr. Mason ; they rejoiced that the 
 government, as they thought, at last showed real 
 spirit in its resentment of such insufferable bad man 
 ners. And a few, like the Eichmond Enquirer (Oc 
 tober 15th), opined that "we may now expect, ere 
 long, to see a British minister at Eichmond, and 
 British consuls asking exequaturs from Mr. Benjamin ; 
 for England never neglects her subjects, nor leaves 
 them without the shadow of her wing and the guard 
 ianship of her flag. The sooner the better ; we do not 
 want to hurt either her or her subjects." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 DARK DAYS IN RICHMOND 
 
 IN treating of the larger questions of Confederate 
 diplomacy, it has been difficult to make clear what 
 duties there could have been sufficient to occupy dur 
 ing long hours, as tradition says, so ready a worker as 
 the Secretary of State ; for the writing of a dispatch or 
 two in the course of a mouth to Mason and Slidell was 
 surely no great tax upon his time. Even if we stretch 
 the thing as much as possible, and include the names 
 of all the diplomatic and consular agents the Con 
 federacy employed, the purely ministerial duties of 
 Mr. Benjamin, in the way of writing and answering 
 dispatches, remember that he had no ambassadors to 
 receive nor diplomatic tea-parties to attend in Rich 
 mond might seem at first glance but slight. 
 
 Quite true, these various agents muster a larger 
 roll than perhaps one would fancy ; besides, the bulky 
 volumes and packages, catalogued to the number of 
 eighty-four, now preserved in the United States 
 Treasury building at Washington, and containing let 
 ters, dispatches, instructions to and from Mason, Sli 
 dell, Rost, Mann, Lamar, Preston, Lynch, Heyliger, 
 Helm, Hotze, and the rest, make the impression that 
 it would be somewhat of a task to read them, and per 
 haps also, therefore, to have to write or digest them. 
 Our respect for the labor involved in Mr. Benj amin's 
 position, if won through such considerations, is further 
 added to when we discover that many matters not in 
 
328 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 any way akin to diplomacy help to swell these vol 
 umes, and that, much of the mere transcribing and 
 copying of dispatches, as well as the translating of 
 cypher and the general routine work, had to be done 
 by the secretary himself and his assistant, Mr. Wash 
 ington ; for clerks were few, and not always to be 
 entrusted with secrets. 
 
 Making all allowances, however, the affairs of state 
 alone would not have occupied Mr. Benjamin's time. 
 Tradition has long had it that Davis, finding his co 
 adjutor always willing and able, got in the habit of re 
 ferring to the State Department everything that did not 
 beyond any hope belong to some other : and that he 
 consulted more freely with the Secretary of State than 
 with any other member of the cabinet. Of the latter 
 supposition we have, of course, no possible direct proof, 
 though there is, as I have stated in a previous chapter, 
 every reason to believe it correct. To the considera 
 tions there offered, it should, I think, be sufficient to 
 add here that both Mrs. Davis and Mr. Washington, 
 in their reminiscences, speak of the prolonged con 
 ferences between Benjamin and Davis. As concerning 
 the tradition that many duties not necessarily apper 
 taining to his office were assigned to Mr. Benjamin, 
 confirmation sufficient is found in the miscellaneous 
 nature of the contents of the archives of the depart 
 ment, as well as in current journalistic gossip and in 
 those same reminiscences of contemporaries. And in 
 estimating the necessary work of the Secretary of State, 
 one should not forget to include the selection and 
 polemic defense of a policy in the larger domestic af 
 fairs of the Confederacy. The Secretary of State was 
 the proper intermediary in communications between the 
 
DABK DAYS IN BICHMOND 329 
 
 general government and its members, the state govern 
 ments. Of this sort of intercourse there was, too, 
 an appalling abundance, as one may see even in what 
 has been published in the invaluable Official Records 
 of the War of the Rebellion. Contrary to the impression 
 that long prevailed, Mr. Davis was most scrupulous 
 and sincere in his efforts to keep well within the limits 
 assigned to the Executive in the Confederate Constitu 
 tion, and to avoid needless encroachments on the 
 sphere of local authority ; to those who doubt this 
 statement, not having here space for more elaborate 
 discussion, I would merely suggest reflection on a few 
 facts. 
 
 In the North, the writ of habeas corpus was sus 
 pended, during the first year and more of the war, 
 by mere executive decree ; arbitrary arrests were made 
 hundreds of miles from the scene of hostilities by the 
 simple command of Seward and Stanton ; and later 
 Congress authorized the suspension of the writ during 
 the war. In the South, Mr. Davis neither claimed nor 
 exercised this unusual power which, in the four years 
 of strife and in the country that was invaded, was 
 employed for periods aggregating less than eighteen 
 months, and then by authority of the Confederate 
 Congress. 1 Maintaining a regard so genuine for con 
 stitutional limitations, and at the same time carry 
 ing on the government and getting things done, 
 often necessitated the writing of lengthy and skil 
 ful arguments to convince reluctant governors and 
 other officials whom one could not ride over rough 
 shod. Though Mr. Davis could hold his own, none 
 
 1 For fuller treatment of this and similar topics, see Rhodes, Vol. 
 V, pp. 453-458, 470-475. 
 
330 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 better, in this sort of pen-fight, it was not infrequently 
 a physical impossibility for him to devote his energies 
 to this instead of to the real battles. Accordingly, it 
 was commonly believed, and no doubt correctly, that 
 Mr. Benjamin wrote many of the very able letters de 
 fending the policy of the government, and that he it 
 was who formulated these policies and drafted them 
 into laws. 1 
 
 We could wish it more detailed and specific, but it 
 is a pleasant picture of the Secretary of State that is 
 given by Mr. Washington, 3 confirming some of the 
 conclusions I have drawn : "I was brought into close 
 relation with Mr. Benjamin, occupied the adjoining 
 room [at the department] to his, and shared his con 
 fidence and friendship to an unusual extent. This en 
 ables me not only to estimate him as a public official, 
 but to weigh and appreciate his many personal gifts 
 and admirable qualities. ... A man of society, 
 his tact in personal intercourse was unfailing, his 
 politeness invariable. In all the trials and anxieties of 
 the great struggle, I never saw his temper ruffled or 
 embittered. His opinions were generally decided but 
 courteously expressed, even when he differed most 
 widely from others. In his most unguarded moments 
 I cannot recall that he ever uttered an oath or a violent 
 expression. He was ever calm, self-poised, and master 
 of all his resources. His grasp of a subject seemed in 
 stantaneous. His mind appeared to move without 
 friction. His thought was clear. His style, whether 
 in composition or conversation, was natural, orderly, 
 
 1 For his authorship of the Presidential Messages, see the letter to 
 Mason, in Chapter XIV. 
 8 Lawley MS. 
 
DAEK DAYS IN RICHMOND 331 
 
 and perspicuous. I do not affirm that his composi 
 tions were wholly unstudied, but, whatever art there 
 was, he had the art to hide. I have known him often 
 to compose a long dispatch or state paper with great 
 rapidity with hardly a word changed or interlined in 
 the whole manuscript. Sometimes, but very rarely, 
 he was unwell, and then he would not work or write 
 at all. Ordinarily, he loved work and absorbed it not 
 only in his own department, but from other branches 
 of the service. 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin's habit was to arrive at the depart 
 ment about 9 A. M. and to stay until 3 P. M., unless 
 he had some special work to complete, when he 
 remained longer. But usually he left at three. He 
 dispatched business rapidly and permitted no work to 
 lie over or accumulate. As the President's offices 
 were near by, he was much with Mr. Davis. I spent 
 about an hour with him nearly every day at 
 the department, but rarely saw him at any other 
 time. . . . 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin identified himself wholly with the 
 struggle and with the administration. He was per 
 sonally devoted to Mr. Davis, and probably had more 
 influence with him than any other man. ... I 
 am sure that Mr. Benjamin kept Mr. Davis advised of 
 all the important operations of the State Department ; 
 but its management, its instructions, correspondence, 
 and policies were those of its accomplished head. In 
 selections for positions abroad, the President, of course, 
 had the final decision." 
 
 Though obviously more concerned with the non- 
 official Mr. Benjamin than this quotation from Mr. 
 Washington, there is something to my purpose in Mrs. 
 
332 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Davis' s letter/ from which I shall now quote, en 
 deavoring to keep away from the alluring passages 
 that tell merely of the man : " Mr. Benjamin and Mr. 
 Davis . . . had had, up to the year of secession, 
 little social intercourse ; an occasional invitation to 
 dinner was accepted and exchanged, and nothing more. 
 . . . It was to me a curious spectacle ; the steady 
 approximation to a thorough friendliness of the Presi 
 dent and his war minister. It was a very gradual 
 rapprochement, but all the more solid for that reason ; 
 and when finally many of their constituents objected 
 to Mr. Benjamin's retaining the portfolio of war, be 
 cause of some reverses which no one could have averted, 
 the President promoted him to the State Department 
 with a personal and sore sense of the injustice done to 
 the man who had now become his friend and right 
 hand during the severe labors which devolved upon the 
 government officials in that desperate and hapless con 
 flict of numbers against right. 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin was always ready for work ; some 
 times, with half an hour's recess, he remained with the 
 Executive from ten in the morning until nine at night, 
 and together they traversed all the difficulties which 
 encompassed our beleaguered land. . . . Both the 
 President and the Secretary of State worked like galley- 
 slaves, early and late. Mr. Davis came home fasting, 
 a mere mass of throbbing nerves, and perfectly ex 
 hausted ; but Mr. Benjamin was always fresh and 
 buoyant. . . . There was one striking peculiarity 
 about his temperament. No matter what disaster 
 
 1 This and other references, are to private letters to me, and to 
 Lawley MS. 
 
DAKK DAYS IN RICHMOND 333 
 
 befell our arms, after he had done all in his power to 
 prevent or rectify it, he was never depressed." 
 
 On all observers whose reminiscences are available, 
 the most vivid and lasting impressions made by what 
 they saw of Mr. Benjamin in Eichmond are, that he 
 was always cheerful, and that he worked very hard. 
 Dr. Hoge, for example, writes: l " He entered very 
 little into the social life of the city. Even had he 
 been disposed to do so he could not have had time for 
 it. He was one of the hardest workers in the cabinet, 
 going to his office early in the morning and often re 
 maining there until after midnight. No matter what 
 his toils or how late his vigils, every morning as he 
 came by my house at nine o'clock (having breakfasted 
 before leaving his) he was dressed faultlessly, and 
 always with a bright, cheerful aspect. Mrs. Hoge 
 often said as she saw him pass, i There goes Mr. Ben- 
 jamin, smiling as usual. 7 " 
 
 Though we are credibly informed that life is not all 
 ''beer and skittles" anywhere, and though that state 
 ment would seem painfully true as applied to the war- 
 shaken capital of the Confederacy, nevertheless the 
 beer and the skittles were not utterly wanting there. 
 Among a certain set, indeed, composed chiefly of 
 reckless blockade runners and others who took desper 
 ate chances in the gamble for fortune, there was, on 
 occasion, such riotous living as contrasted painfully 
 with the undoubted privations of the many, at some 
 seasons, in a city that knew what a bread riot was 
 (April 2d, 1863), and excited the righteous wrath of 
 the more scrupulous and patriotic citizens. Of this 
 set, however, not even scandal could accuse Benjamin 
 
 1 Lawley MS. 
 
334 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 of being one. Though Dr. Hoge fancied he had too 
 little opportunity for amusements, Mrs. Davis and 
 others mention his taking part in the social life of the 
 more dignified and proper set. This participation in 
 the gaieties by which Eichmoud, from time to time, 
 sought to relieve the strain of war, was, however, but 
 occasional. As a rule, the routine of Mr. Benjamin's 
 life was very simple, his manner of living unostenta 
 tious, though as comfortable as his means and the 
 exigencies of the situation permitted. 
 
 " There were no formal receptions or dinners by the 
 President or any of the cabinet, ' ' writes Mr. Washing 
 ton. "They lived very plainly. Mr. Benjamin 
 lived in a very modest way at the west end of Eich- 
 mond, with a 'mess,' as it was called, of Louisiana 
 congressmen Honorable Duncan F. Kenner, Charles 
 M. Conrad, and others ; but while he liked social in 
 tercourse with a few friends, he did not care for crowds 
 or general society." Of his associates at this time we 
 learn further from Mrs. Davis : " He had living with 
 him a very well-educated and elegant young brother- 
 in-law, Jules St. Martin, whom he loved dearly." 
 This is the same interesting man of whose desperate 
 difficulties with the English tongue Mr. Eussell makes 
 mention, in his account of the visit to Mr. Benjamin 
 at Montgomery. Mrs. Davis continues : "When Mr. 
 Benjamin came to Eichmond, Mr. St. Martin came 
 also, and the two set up a comfortable house, where 
 they entertained their friends in as elegant a manner 
 as blockaded bon vivants could do." Here were re 
 ceived some of the few notables who managed to find 
 their way through the blockade ; and Mr. Benjamin's 
 friends were always welcome to share what he had. 
 
DARK DAYS IN RICHMOND 335 
 
 As times grew harder, however, the feasts at the secre 
 tary's table were somewhat suggestive of that famous 
 lemonade brewed for Mr. Swiveller and herself by 
 " The Marchioness." His family, with a comparative 
 plenty of those broiled chickens in which they knew 
 he delighted, heard with much comic distress, through 
 a gentleman who dined with the Secretary of State, 
 that the board on that occasion was graced with plenty 
 of corn bread and a doubtful sufficiency of bacon. Of 
 course the rather fastidious Mr. Benjamin was pleased 
 to be included among those intimate friends who, 
 toward the end of the war, used to receive from Mrs. 
 Davis "verbal invitations somewhat in this fashion, 
 i Do come to dinner or tea ; we succeeded in running 
 the blockade this week' which meant 'real coffee' 
 after dinner, preserved fruits, loaf sugar, good tea, and 
 sometimes some anchovy toast, which was always ac 
 ceptable to Mr. Benjamin's palate. He used to say 
 that with bread made of Crenshaw's flour [a noted 
 miller of Virginia], spread with paste made of English 
 walnuts from an immense tree in our grounds, and a 
 glass of McHenry sherry, of which we had a scanty 
 store, 'a man's patriotism became rampant.'" 
 
 Of Mr. Benjamin's family we have not heard since 
 the outbreak of the war, when some of its members 
 were in New Orleans, and his wife and daughter in 
 France. There the latter remained, and were sup 
 ported by frequent remittances from him, which, 
 though not so lavish as they had formerly been, were 
 adequate. Mrs. Levy and her daughter, Mrs. Pop- 
 ham, and Miss Harriet Benjamin, in New Orleans, 
 could not but view with alarm the approach of the 
 Federal fleet. Mrs. Kruttschnitt, another sister, was 
 
336 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 more fortunate in being secure against molestation, her 
 husband being of foreign nationality, and, indeed, 
 German consul. After the fall of the city, Mrs. Levy 
 and her household, who had been given no warning to 
 move from New Orleans by Mr. Benjamin, found 
 themselves in a condition rather precarious ; though 
 not molested for some time, they were, at best, cut 
 off from their base of supplies, and from direct com 
 munication with the one who had so zealously looked 
 after their comfort and their safety. But immunity on 
 the part of women known to be related to the hated 
 Confederate Secretary of State could not long be ex 
 pected under the rule of such heroes as the North be 
 stowed upon New Orleans. The stern necessities of 
 war, even to the limit of Sherman 7 s emphatic epithet, 
 the South will concede ; but with what honest pride 
 shall she not boast that her soldiers' record is free 
 from stains of purely wanton and cowardly persecution 
 of defenseless women and children. What now fol 
 lowed for Mrs. Levy and her household, which I shall 
 relate as nearly as possible as it was told me by her 
 daughter, is not tragic, merely petty and spiteful, of 
 just the measure of the men responsible for it. 
 
 "One night in the summer of 1862," said she, 
 a about nine o'clock, there came a knock on the door 
 that startled the family. Eiley, the colored dining- 
 room man, went to answer it, and returned with fear 
 in face and accent, to announce that l there's a Yankee 
 right at the door.' Mrs. Levy and Miss Harriet fled, 
 leaving me to face the young Federal lieutenant 
 whom I found there, and who told me that he had 
 merely been sent to warn us that the house was needed 
 by the military authorities, and would be taken pos- 
 
DARK DAYS IN EICHMOND 337 
 
 session of in the morning and used as a hospital for 
 General Weitzel's men. 'This will do,' he said, after 
 inspecting the rooms with a candle while I followed, 
 protesting vainly. ' If you wish to leave at once, you 
 may take away such things as you absolutely need ; a 
 squad of men will be sent to protect you to-night.' 
 We began packing up at once, and fortunately, when 
 the dreaded soldiers came, the men proved to be 
 Germans who had known Mr. Popham. By humor 
 ing them and plying them with what was left of some 
 rare old Bourbon and Cognac, once highly prized by 
 Mr. Benjamin and his guests, we prevailed on them to 
 move nearly all of the furniture to the house of a 
 neighbor, kindly put at our service, which was prac 
 tically empty. Owing a small amount to the German 
 grocery man whose yard adjoined ours, I pulled some 
 palings off the fence and drove the cow into his yard. 
 By this payment in kind, our only debt was cleared. 
 
 "All through the night we worked, packing and 
 moving. In the morning, as Mrs. Levy was sitting on 
 a bundle of our belongings, almost the last, on the 
 front porch, another squad of soldiers, with an inso 
 lent young fellow in command, came to relieve the 
 complaisant guard of the past night. ' Madam,' said 
 the officer, ' are you the sister of the arch rebel, Ben 
 jamin 1 ?' Mrs. Levy timidly admitted that she was. 
 1 Then you are not to remove anything from this house. 
 It is a military necessity.' Fortunately this individ 
 ual was relieved later in the day by a more reasonable 
 officer, who permitted us to remove the few remaining 
 things that we needed. After a few days of discom 
 fort and uncertainty, we rented two rooms in the 
 French quarter of the city, where we lived for some 
 
338 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 weeks, till a letter, delivered we knew not how, came 
 from Mr. Benjamin, advising us to make our way out 
 into the Confederacy, where we could be in communi 
 cation with him. An honest debtor, scorning to take 
 advantage of the chance to slip out of his obligation, 
 paid to me a note for $900 ; this was all we had, and 
 all we could hope to have till we could again get in 
 communication with Mr. Benjamin." 
 
 After adventures that would be full of interest if we 
 had time to recount them, and which many poor refu 
 gees could duplicate if their tales were told, Mrs. Levy 
 and her little family made their way to La Grange, in 
 Georgia. Here they settled, and lived in comfort, 
 considering the privations that all were subjected to. 
 Mr. Benjamin sent them money, "as much as he could 
 spare, and provisions, denying himself, we feared, to 
 promote our comfort." 
 
 All of this vicarious punishment of the l i arch rebel, ' ' 
 be it remembered, was of " military necessity," by 
 military authority ; the confiscation of his property, 
 even to the books in his deserted law office, under act 
 of Congress, came later. With indignities and in 
 sults and even serious privation menacing not only 
 his own womenkind but the many friends of a life 
 time in New Orleans, it would be little wonder if Mr. 
 Benjamin's personal feelings were thoroughly roused 
 as he wrote to Mr. Mason 1 describing the " nature of 
 the tyranny exercised over that unfortunate city by 
 the brutal commander who temporarily rules over it." 
 
 From righteous denunciation of General Butler, and 
 proclamation of his outlawry (December 23, 1862) 
 
 1 July 19, 1862 ; Mason, p. 296. For confiscation of the library, 
 see Picayune, June 7, 1865. 
 
DAKK DAYS IN BICHMOND 339 
 
 which it must have been a pleasure to proclaim, even 
 if barren of results we must return to the now brief 
 story of Confederate foreign relations. 
 
 As soon as the Secretary of State was officially in 
 formed that Mr. Mason had found it expedient to 
 withdraw from London, he notified the envoy 1 that 
 the President desired him and his secretary to remain 
 on the Continent, preferably at Paris, in readiness to 
 be dispatched wherever their services might be pre 
 sumed to be useful. On this wandering commission 
 Mr. Mason continued during the remainder of the war ; 
 there was never again any really hopeful opportunity 
 to employ him in diplomacy, though he was freely 
 consulted by Mr. Slidell, and, in a private capacity 
 made several trips across the channel, attending to 
 such small matters as Mr. Benjamin might direct or 
 his own zeal might suggest. 
 
 Of Mr. Slidell' s mission, too, the hope is soon to be 
 lost. The historian gives a fuller account, 3 but we 
 may condense it : Louis Napoleon played a dishonest 
 game with both parties, and when caught at it by the 
 United States, promptly sacrificed the Confederates. 
 Under his assurances, as I have noted, the Confederate 
 agents had contracted for the building in France, at 
 Nantes and Bordeaux, of four cruisers and two iron 
 clads. Work was progressing satisfactorily, when a 
 clerk abstracted papers showing the design and the 
 ownership of two of these vessels and sold them, with 
 what other information he possessed, to Mr. Dayton, 
 
 1 Mason, p. 457. 
 
 2 See Bigelow, France and the Confederate Navy ; Bulloch, Secret 
 Service of the Confederacy; and Callahan, Diplomatic History of 
 the Confederacy. 
 
340 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 United States minister at Paris. Armed with positive 
 prooi's of the hostile destination of the vessels, Mr. 
 Dayton confronted the French authorities, and forced 
 tne government to take steps that would effectually 
 prevent these ships from getting out of French ports 
 to cruise under the Confederate flag. The first dis 
 quieting rumors about the cruisers were sent by Slidell 
 in dispatches of November 15 and 19, 1863, telling of 
 his note of remonstrance to Napoleon ; of his personal 
 interview with Drouyn de 1'Huys, upon whom his 
 representations seemed to have some effect ; and of the 
 channels through which the fatal secret had reached 
 Dayton. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin, more perturbed by troublous times 
 in domestic politics than by unforeseen disaster from a 
 quarter deemed so safe, and having exhausted himself 
 in re-fashioning the well-tried arguments that had so 
 far proved of no force to move European powers to 
 intervention, had been permitting himself to indulge 
 in a little digression l upon the admirable courage and 
 patience of Mr. Davis under severe criticism from his 
 own people: "In all cases without exception, how 
 ever, our chief magistrate is compelled to bear in 
 silence any amount of clamor and obloquy, for in nine 
 cases out of ten a disclosure of facts would injure the 
 public interest. At moments like the present, when 
 the calamities and distresses of a long war have created 
 in weak and despondent souls the usual result on such 
 natures, by making them querulous, unjust, and clam 
 orous, when men even with good intentions, but igno 
 rant of the facts on which alone judgment can be based, 
 join in denunciation of those in authority, it is a 
 
 1 Picket* Papers; dispatch to Slidell, December 9, 1863. 
 
DAEK DAYS IN KICHMOND 341 
 
 spectacle really sublime to observe the utter abnega 
 tion of self, the exclusive reliance on the mem conscia 
 rectij the entire willingness to leave his vindication to 
 posterity which are displayed by the President." 
 
 Within little more than a week (December 18th) 
 after this, Mr. Benjamin had received Mr. SlidelPs 
 warning. Waiting a fortnight for further develop 
 ments, he was, for once, despondent from the very 
 first when he wrote to Slidell on January 8, 1864 : 
 " Painful solicitude is ... felt, lest in this in 
 stance also, we may meet with the double-dealing from 
 which we have suffered severely since the beginning 
 of our struggle. Hopeful as I am in temper, there 
 was something in what passed in the interview to 
 which you refer [i. e., with Drouyn de 1'Huys] that 
 indicated a desire to escape from plighted faith, and a 
 scarcely disguised impatience of the burden and 
 responsibility imposed by previous engagements, which 
 fills me with distrust. The same effect has been pro 
 duced on the President." 
 
 The actual determination to detain the vessels was 
 not reached till months later; but Benjamin never 
 doubted that he had been tricked and would be for 
 saken by Louis Napoleon, though at first he prudently 
 refrained from severity of censure. When the end 
 came, however, he wrote: 1 "We cannot resist the 
 conclusion that there has been bad faith and deception 
 in the course pursued by the Emperor, who has not 
 hesitated to break his promises to us in order to escape 
 the consequences resulting from his unpopular Mexican 
 policy. . . . We feel, therefore, the necessity of 
 receiving with extreme distrust any assurances whafc- 
 
 i June 23, 1864. 
 
342 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ever that may emanate from a party capable of the 
 double-dealing displayed toward us by the Imperial 
 Government. 77 From this time, though dispatches 
 continued to be written to Slidell as commissioner to 
 France, for all practical purposes the attempt to en 
 list her aid may be said to have ceased. 
 
 To all men not wilfully blind, so we think now, it 
 must have appeared clear, in the summer of 1864, that 
 the South could not win her independence, and that it 
 were best to make whatever terms possible to avert 
 further useless shedding of blood. But, with reso 
 lution which some will call stubborn and some heroic, 
 the Southerners still fought on, and their leaders still 
 spoke confidently of the impossibility of conquest by 
 the North. Mr. Benjamin held to this idea, and gave 
 it expression on all occasions, public and private. He 
 writes to Slidell (April 18th) of his " thorough con 
 viction" that independence is near, through the utter 
 ' ' inability of the United States to continue a contest 
 in which its resources, both of men and money will 
 have been exhausted in vain." He speaks in equally as 
 confident a strain to the Reverend Colonel Jacques and 
 Mr. Gilmore, unofficial peace envoys from the United 
 States, who, through passport from Lincoln to Grant 
 and Grant to Lee, visit Richmond on July 16th ; l and 
 he writes to his sister, Mrs. Kruttschnitt, who was 
 within the Federal lines at New Orleans : " 31 October, 
 1864. As for myself, my health is good, my spirits 
 unimpaired, and I look with undiminished confidence 
 to our future happy reunion around a common fire 
 side." 
 
 Other portions of this letter, thoroughly character- 
 1 Mason, p. 517; Callahan, pp. 227, 228. 
 
DAEK DAYS IN EICHMOND 343 
 
 istic of the man in his domestic relations, are so 
 interesting that I shall quote them here, with no 
 further apologies for the digression. There is news of 
 all members of the family, and loving solicitude for 
 their welfare, but with the exception of the brief 
 passage just cited, there is scarce an allusion to him 
 self, and none to political questions : 
 
 " An opportunity presents itself, my darling Penny, 
 for writing to you more fully than in the various scraps 
 that I have been able to send you from time to time, 
 and I do hope that you will receive this safely. 
 
 "First, let me relieve your affectionate heart, by 
 saying that we are all well and in good spirits. I had 
 letters quite recently from Sis, Hatty, and Leah 
 [Mrs. Levy, Miss Harriett Benjamin, and Mrs. Pop- 
 ham]. Sis and Leah are no longer with the family 
 in which they were living, but have obtained board at 
 a very moderate rate in the home of a farmer in the 
 neighborhood of La Grange, where they pass their 
 time somewhat dully, perhaps, but where the table is 
 abundant with all the products of a prosperous farm, 
 and where the people are very kind and good, and 
 consider themselves in great part repaid by the tuition 
 of their little children, in which Sis and Leah amuse 
 themselves. Prior to this last change of residence Sis 
 was not pleasantly situated, and I am very glad that she 
 was able to find another refuge for herself and L. I 
 am able, fortunately, to supply them with funds from 
 a source which I do not choose to risk writing about 
 further than to say that it is outside of the Con 
 federacy. 
 
 t i Hatty is still with her old friends, who seem much 
 attached to her and will not hear of her leaving them. 
 She is close enough to Sis to make frequent visits prac 
 ticable, and I furnish her with a moderate contribution 
 toward the household expenditure of the family where 
 she lives. 
 
344 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 "Our dear Joe [his brother, in the Confederate 
 army] is still in the trans-Mississippi, and was un 
 luckily unable to accompany Dick Taylor when he 
 crossed to this side, in consequence of his ill health. 
 At my last accounts he was much better. . . . 
 
 11 Lionel [Mrs. Levy's son] is well and in good spirits. 
 He is judge-advocate of the military court, with the 
 rank of captain of cavalry, and his correspondence 
 with his mother, sister, and myself is pretty regular. 
 
 ' ' I have very encouraging letters from wife and 
 daughter, and my wife writes me that our daughter's 
 health is greatly improved and that she is now at last 
 sanguine of a radical cure. 
 
 " I heard of you lately through Mrs. Brand, who has 
 gone to Europe, and to whom I was able to be service 
 able in return for her great kindness to Sis and Hatty 
 in their trouble. I have never heard whether you re 
 ceived the photograms of my wife and daughter that I 
 sent you by a lady who promised to deliver them in 
 person, but Mrs. Brand informed me that she thought 
 she remembered your mentioning the receipt of 
 them. . . . 
 
 1 i And now, my darling, I must talk of you and your 
 own precious treasures. I suppose that Ernest and 
 Julius, and my saucy little coquette, Becky, have long 
 since lost all memory of me. Your other little one I 
 have never seen, but it seems to me you might manage 
 to send me some cartes- de-visite with the portraits of all 
 of you, including my dear Kitt. How does he come 
 on ? What does he spend his time about ? There must 
 be very little business possible for him. And how gets 
 on the garden? and the ponies? and who are your 
 neighbors ? By the way, I live only two doors from 
 
 Mrs. G , your old neighbor, who is well and very 
 
 frequently talks of you. . . . 
 
 a We get letters from you so very seldom that I am 
 sure you do not avail yourself of all the opportunities, 
 though Sis and Hatty sometimes hear from you indi 
 rectly. A very sure and good way to send me letters 
 
DAEK DAYS IN BICHMOND 345 
 
 would be to get some person going to Havana to take 
 a letter for me and deliver it to C. J. Helm to be for 
 warded. As our letters never contain a word of any 
 thing but family matters there would be no risk, even 
 if they were captured. I think this could be easily 
 managed. I got one letter from you about four months 
 after its date, from one of the officers of a French ves 
 sel that left New Orleans last winter. 
 
 "Now I must bid you good-bye, my own darling, 
 with a thousand kisses for you and the dear little ones, 
 and a thousand affectionate remembrances to Kitt, 
 from one who loves you dearly, and need not sign his 
 name." 
 
 No plea for such a letter is necessary ; its sim 
 plicity and sincerity of affection are eloquence enough. 
 And yet it is of such a man that we are asked to 
 credit imputations of diabolical cruelty, complicity in 
 schemes nefarious in the eyes of all civilization. We 
 are asked to believe that Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin 
 sent agents to Canada with instructions to burn New 
 York City. The facts, or the evidences of fact, are 
 that on April 27, 1864, Mr. Davis issued the following 
 commission : 
 
 "HONORABLE JACOB THOMPSON, SIR : Confiding 
 special trust in your zeal, discretion, and patriotism, I 
 hereby direct you to proceed at once to Canada, there 
 to carry out such instructions as you have received 
 from me verbally, in such manner as shall seem most 
 likely to conduce to the furtherance of the interests of 
 the Confederate States of America which have been in 
 trusted to you. 
 
 ' ' Very respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 "JEFFERSON DAVIS."' 
 
 1 Official Records, Series IV, Vol. Ill, p. 322. 
 
346 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 To Clement C. Clay, a similar commission was issued 
 at the same time ; and funds to the amount of $900, 000 
 were furnished Thompson. The instructions given 
 being verbal, we have no record of them other than 
 the memory of the persons concerned. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin made a fair statement of the principal 
 object of the mission in a dispatch to Mr. Slidell, 
 April 30th: 1 " We have sent Jacob Thompson of 
 Mississippi, and Clement C. Clay of Alabama, to 
 Canada on secret service, in the hope of aiding the 
 disruption between the Eastern and Western states in 
 the approaching election at the North. It is supposed 
 that much good can be done by the purchase of some 
 of the principal presses, especially in the North west. " 
 
 If we add to the instructions for " aiding the dis 
 ruption between the Eastern and Western states," the 
 duty of aiding in plans for the rescue of Confederate 
 prisoners confined on Johnson's Island and at other 
 points near the Canadian border, we shall probably 
 hit the truth as regards the objects of this mission. 
 We hear nothing further of importance about it the 
 sweeping devastations of Sheridan in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley and the victories at Mobile and Atlanta 
 discountenanced the peace party at the North until 
 November 27th, when fires undoubtedly of incendiary 
 origin broke out simultaneously, or nearly so, in sev 
 eral New York hotels and theatres. They did lit 
 tle damage, but caused great excitement. In the 
 official Eecords of the EebeUion, published by the 
 United States government, 2 we find what purports to 
 be a letter from Jacob Thompson, found in the Con- 
 
 1 PicJcett Papers, pkg. 80, p. 193 ; see Callahan, p. 225, note, 
 s Series I, Vol. XLIII, Part II, p. 930. 
 
DAEK DAYS IN KICHMOND 347 
 
 federate archives, dated Toronto, December 3, 1864, 
 and indorsed, " Eeceived Feb. 13, 1865. J. P. B." 
 Here Mr. Thompson describes the plans to burn New 
 York, as of his authority, and regrets their miscar 
 riage. The inference is that they were approved 
 by Mr. Benjamin, and were, indeed, the attempt to 
 carry out instructions received from the Confederate 
 authorities. 1 
 
 The general denial of the imputation of designs so re 
 volting by Benjamin and Davis has had, and will have, 
 little power to convince so long as the embers of the 
 great war still glow. As food for reflection, how 
 ever, were it not well to consider what one of the 
 South' s most bitter enemies said when high Confederate 
 officials were accused of complicity in the assassination 
 of Lincoln? Thaddeus Stevens remarked: "Those 
 men are no friends of mine. They are public enemies 
 and I would treat the South as a conquered country 
 and settle it politically upon the policy best suited for 
 ourselves. But I know these men, sir. They are gen 
 tlemen, and incapable of being assassins." 2 
 
 As far as Mr. Benjamin is concerned, we need no 
 better defense, as has been stated, than his past honor 
 able record to repel a calumny as baseless as that other 
 clumsy one that he had proposed to the British consul 
 in New York that the Confederacy might return to the 
 shelter of the mother country. 3 But for information I 
 append Mr. Washington's statement, made in 1897 : 
 
 1 Cf. Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 320, 330-341 ; Schouler, Vol. VI, p. 521. 
 Headley, Confederate Operations in Canada, pp. , 264-283, glories in 
 the attempt and describes his participation in it. 
 
 2 Southern Hist. Soc. Papers, Vol. I, p. 325; quoted by Rhodes, 
 Vol. V. p. 158, note ; italics mine. 
 
 8 N. Y. Times, Jan. 29, and Feb. 5, 1884; cited by Kohler, p. 78. 
 
348 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 " I was present at the time when Mr. Thompson re 
 ceived his instructions from Mr. Benjamin. They 
 were oral and largely suggestive and informal. Much 
 was left to his discretion, and wisely ; for he was an 
 experienced and conservative man. But there was not 
 a word or a thought that looked to any violation of the 
 rules of war as they exist among civilized nations. As 
 a matter of fact, Mr. Davis, Mr. Benjamin, General 
 Lee, and the other leaders of the Confederacy, believed 
 to the last that it was not merely right, but the wisest 
 and best policy to maintain and respect every one of 
 the humane restrictions in the conduct of the war 
 which are upheld by the publicists. They did not be 
 lieve with the United States War Department that 
 any and all destruction of an enemy's property was 
 justifiable. 1 So holding, the lives of Dahlgren's cap 
 tured officers and men, despite public clamor, were 
 spared, though they came with a known and proven 
 program of sacking Richmond and murdering Mr. 
 Davis and his cabinet. 2 It was not strange, however, 
 that those who burned Atlanta, Jackson, Columbia, 
 and a score of Southern towns, besides a belt of coun 
 try in South Carolina over forty miles wide, should 
 assume that the Confederate government would retali 
 ate in kind.' 7 
 
 As the year 1864 drew to its close, with Grant stub 
 bornly holding to his campaign of hard blows and not 
 to be diverted, with Sherman piercing the heart of 
 Georgia, and, above all, with the ranks of Lee's army 
 rapidly thinning and not to be easily refilled, Mr. 
 Benjamin realized that the affairs of the Confederacy 
 
 *See ante, Chap. IX. 
 
 9 Cf . Rhodes, Vol. V, p. 514. 
 
DARK DAYS IN RICHMOND 349 
 
 were in desperate plight, and that only desperate 
 measures might save the day. He set himself to the 
 task, not an easy one, according to rumor, of convinc 
 ing Mr. Davis that they must now play their 
 trump cards. First, the ranks of the army must be 
 filled up, and to do this the South must follow Lincoln's 
 example and enlist the negroes. Secondly, European 
 intervention, involving the raising of the blockade, 
 must be had ; since other means had failed, the Con 
 federacy must try to move England and France by 
 promising emancipation of the slaves. 
 
 Some had favored enlisting negroes long before this ; 
 thus in August, 1863, Mr. Micon, of Florida, had pro 
 posed the drafting of slaves. But Mr. Benjamin 
 deemed the proposal premature, and inadvisable, since, 
 as he pointed out, they would have to be paid for ; 
 and would cost at least $2,000 each, or, if hired, $30 
 per month, whereas white soldiers received but $11. 
 The organization of negro men in this way might be 
 highly dangerous ; and the labor of the slaves was 
 needed in the mines and in the fields. 1 Now, however, 
 the complexion of affairs had changed, and General 
 Lee himself spoke favorably of employing negroes as 
 troops. Eeluctantly won over by the representations 
 of the Secretary of State and others, Mr. Davis recom 
 mended the prompt passage of such legislation as 
 would empower him to enlist the able-bodied men. 
 There followed, naturally, a long wrangle in Congress 
 and in the press ; and though Lee made it known that 
 he favored such a measure, and though his influence 
 doubtless had more to do with its ultimate adoption 
 
 ^ee PicJcett Papers, Domestic Letters, August 18, 1863; summary 
 in Callahan, p. 245. 
 
350 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 than that of any other man, all the odium of it at 
 tached to Mr. Benjamin. It was only another foolish 
 device, of his, men said, for foreign effect. At this 
 time the attacks upon the score of his religion were 
 redoubled. From their bitterness it was hard to dis 
 criminate between the Southern editors and Harper's 
 Weekly, describing him as "a lifelong oppressor of 
 [the negro] race, avenging upon them the mediseval 
 torture of [his] own kind." When the President 
 issued a proclamation appointing March 10th as a 
 day of fasting and prayer, the fanatical objected 
 because the Jewish Secretary of State signed and sealed 
 it in his official capacity. 
 
 In spite of his unpopularity, however, his oratory 
 had not lost its power. On February 3d, Stephens, 
 Campbell and Hunter met Lincoln and Seward in what 
 is known as the Hampton Koads Conference. It was, 
 said Lincoln, to secure " peace to the people of our 
 one common country"; it was, said Davis, to secure 
 i l peace to the two countries ' ' ; hence it secured peace 
 to no one then, and has brought forth a pen and ink 
 controversy since. 1 When the Confederate commis 
 sioners returned from this fruitless conference, with the 
 answer, in substance, "no terms but absolute submis 
 sion to the will of the conqueror," Mr. Davis delivered 
 what Stephens considered probably the master ora 
 tion of his life in an enthusiastic mass meeting at 
 Eichmond, to support the administration in continuing 
 the desperate conflict. Three days later (February 9th), 
 at another meeting, Mr. Benjamin made his last political 
 
 1 For fair statement, see Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 67-73 ; for Ben 
 jamin's contribution to the controversy after the war, see So. 
 Hist. Soc. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 212. 
 
DABK DAYS IN KICHMOND 351 
 
 address. Its substance only is known, since there is no 
 sort of adequate report in any of the papers ; it was a 
 well-timed and skilfully urged plea in behalf of the 
 policy of emancipating and arming the negroes. Even 
 when championing a measure so unpopular, the unfor- 
 gotten art of the orator told upon his audience, made 
 up largely, says Mrs. Davis, of " officers and men who 
 had ridden in from the front to hear what had hap 
 pened. He sent those who had come discouraged and 
 desperate, knowing as they did the overwhelming forces 
 which confronted them, back to camp full of hope and 
 ardor, and I think made the most successful effort of 
 his life. " l 
 
 But the noisy furore of mass meetings, as some 
 of the papers remarked, did not furnish any recruits 
 for Lee's army ; and as the enthusiasm ebbed, critics 
 and " croakers, " always plentiful when the tide turns, 
 seemed to single out Mr. Benjamin as the chief cause 
 of the woes from which the country suffered. Long 
 since recovered from the soreness of defeat, and justly 
 proud, after serious retrospect, of the marvelous en 
 durance of the South in an unequal contest, intelligent 
 Southerners have done justice to the ability and sin 
 cerity of Mr. Davis and of his chief adviser. But the 
 watchful Jones, who had intimated that both Seward 
 and Benjamin were " alike destitute of principle and 
 of moral or physical courage," was now doubtless 
 correct in his opinion that the country, demanding " a 
 change of men in the cabinet, [found Mr. Benjamin] the 
 
 1 Letter in Lawley MS. ; Mrs. Davis writes me (Oct. 12, 1904), 
 that she was an auditor, in an adjoining room, when the cabinet 
 met to hear the report of the Commissioners, and that it was Ben 
 jamin who suggested and insisted upon a public meeting, " to feel 
 the pulse of the people." 
 
352 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 most obnoxious of all." l Still, in this hour of stress as 
 always, Mr. Davis stood by him. Congress fumed and 
 fretted, and passed no act that could save the Con 
 federacy ; but it did not oust the Secretary of State. 
 Jones, who had fancied that smile fled from his lip, 
 saw it return again. 
 
 Meanwhile that other desperate expedient to which 
 Mr. Benjamin had persuaded the President was being 
 tried in Europe : the offer to emancipate the slaves in 
 exchange for recognition. Mr. Davis felt, and very 
 properly, that he had no authority under the Constitu 
 tion to promise them freedom, nor, indeed, to interfere 
 in any way with slavery ; a point which Benjamin read 
 ily conceded, for was it not so argued by himself in the 
 circular sent out to the Confederate commissioners on 
 January 15, 1863? He justified the usurpation of an 
 unconstitutional authority by reasons exactly similar 
 to those adduced by Lincoln, and sanctioned by his 
 tory, to justify a like usurpation on his part. In 
 deed, such measures need no excuse other than their 
 necessity. Mr. Davis was convinced, and began to 
 concert with Benjamin the means of carrying out the 
 idea. The South, generally, of course, was not ready 
 for such desperate remedies; but some leaders had 
 already advocated emancipation, and General Lee was 
 believed to favor it. So bitter was the feeling among 
 the majority of the people against a government that 
 seemed to sanction such acts as were committed by 
 Hunter, Sheridan, and Sherman, that there would have 
 been less difficulty than is thought in reconciling them 
 to the movement, if once they could be convinced that 
 this would save them from subjection to the North. 
 
 1 Diary, September 27, 1863, and March 9, 1865. 
 
DAEK DAYS IN EICHMOND 353 
 
 Still, until the popular mind could be prepared for their 
 reception, it was of the highest importance that the new 
 designs of the Secretary of State should be kept secret. 
 A gentleman known personally to Mr. Benjamin, 
 Duncan F. Kenner, of Louisiana, one of the wealthiest 
 slave-owners of his state, and avowedly not at all 
 averse to emancipation, was decided upon as the special 
 envoy who should undertake the negotiations in Europe. 
 Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell might not be thoroughly in 
 accord with the new ideas, or might not be in a position 
 to reach the English and French authorities with whom 
 they had had such unpleasant experiences. But some 
 intimations were given them of a change of policy in a 
 dispatch, the " supreme effort of Confederate diplo 
 macy, " from whose carefully measured and sonorous 
 periods there will yet ring many a proud echo in the 
 hearts of those who still cherish a pathetic pride in the 
 lost cause, and who, accepting the issue as it was de 
 cided, still believe with General Lee, " we had . . . 
 sacred principles to maintain and rights to defend, for 
 which we were in duty bound to do our best, even if we 
 perished in the endeavor. ' J " The Confederate States, ' ' 
 wrote Benjamin, 1 " have now for nearly four years re 
 sisted the utmost power of the United States with a 
 courage and fortitude to which the world has accorded 
 its respect and admiration. No people have poured 
 out their blood more freely in defense of their liberties 
 and independence, nor have endured sacrifices with 
 greater cheerfulness than have the men and women of 
 these Confederate States. 
 
 1 Dispatch to Slidell, December 29; to Mason, December 30, 1865; 
 see Mason, pp. 541-545; Callahan, pp. 247-267; Lee's Letters, 
 p. 151. 
 
354 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 " They accepted the issue which was forced on them 
 by an arrogant and domineering race, vengeful, grasp 
 ing, and ambitious. They have asked nothing, fought 
 for nothing, but for the right of self-government, for 
 independence. " 
 
 He continues, that in this war the Confederacy has 
 fought for Europe as well as for herself, and yet is left 
 unaided. With skill he points out the peculiar inter 
 est of France in checking the arrogance at Washing 
 ton : "It needs no sagacity to predict that in the 
 event of success in their designs against us, the United 
 States would afford but a short respite to France from 
 inevitable war ; a war in which France would be in 
 volved not simply in defense of the French policy in 
 Mexico, but for the protection of the French soldiers 
 still retained by the Emperor Maximilian under the 
 treaty with him, for the maintenance of his position 
 on the Mexican throne. " 
 
 And finally, in a sort of peroration that Mason used 
 in a closing effort to move Palmerston, and wherein 
 one cannot fail to feel, rather than actually read, 
 despair: " While unshaken in the determination 
 never again to unite ourselves under a common gov 
 ernment with a people by whom we have been so 
 deeply wronged, the inquiry daily becomes more 
 pressing, What is the policy and what are the pur 
 poses of the Western powers of Europe in relation to 
 this contest ? Are they determined never to recognize 
 the Southern Confederacy until the United States as 
 sent to such action on their part ? Do they propose, 
 under any circumstances, to give other and more direct 
 aid to the Northern people in attempting to enforce our 
 submission to a hateful union ? If so, it is but just 
 
DARK DAYS IN RICHMOND 355 
 
 that we should be apprised of their purpose, to the end 
 that we may then deliberately consider the terms, if 
 any, upon which we can secure peace from the foes to 
 whom the question is thus surrendered, and who have 
 the countenance and encouragement of all mankind in 
 the invasion of our country, the destruction of our 
 homes, the extermination of our people. If, on the 
 other hand, there be objections not made known to us, 
 which have for four years prevented the recognition of 
 our independence, notwithstanding the demonstration 
 of our right to assert, and our ability to maintain it, 
 justice equally demands that an opportunity be afforded 
 us for meeting and overcoming those objections, if in 
 our power to do so. 
 
 * ' We have given ample evidence that we are not a 
 people to be appalled by danger, or to shrink from 
 sacrifice in the attainment of our object. That object 
 the sole object for which we would ever have con 
 sented to commit our all to the hazards of this war is 
 the vindication of our right to self-government and 
 independence. 
 
 " For that end no sacrifice is too great save that of 
 honor. If, then, the purpose of France and Great 
 Britain have been, or be now, to exact terms or con 
 ditions before conceding the rights we claim, a frank 
 exposition of that purpose is due to humanity. It is 
 due now, for it may enable us to save many lives most 
 precious to our country by consenting to such terms 
 in advance of another year's campaign. 
 
 * ' This dispatch will be handed to you by the 
 Hon. Duncan F. Kenner. . . . It is proper . . . 
 that I should authorize you, officially, to consider any 
 communication he may make verbally on the subject 
 
356 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 embraced in this dispatch as emanating from this de 
 partment under the instructions of the President." 
 
 Mr. Kenner, given full and confidential instructions, 
 and entrusted with most ample powers to negotiate 
 treaties, to sell cotton, to purchase ships, to supersede 
 or to act with Mason and Slidell made his way in dis 
 guise through New York to Europe, where he arrived 
 in the latter part of February. Though a man of much 
 native ability and shrewdness, and thoroughly edu 
 cated, he had no diplomatic experience, and preferred, 
 perhaps for other reasons of policy, to make interna 
 tional moves through Mason and Slidell. Through the 
 latter he had an interview with the French Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs, who, as usual, would give an answer 
 "in two weeks," while the Emperor still proposed to 
 act only in concert with England. Eeturning to 
 London with Mason on March 3d, Mr. Kenner entered 
 into negotiations with bankers for the sale of cotton, 
 conditional on recognition, while Mason sought and 
 obtained an interview with Lord Palmerston in order 
 to sound him. In accordance with the plan of action 
 agreed upon with Mr. Kenner and Mr. Slidell, Mr. 
 Mason did not make a direct proposition to Lord 
 Palmerston, but with considerable adroitness so di 
 rected the conversation that there could be no mis 
 taking his meaning, as he read the significant con 
 clusion of Mr. Benjamin's dispatch, that the Con 
 federacy would abolish slavery if that were the 
 obstacle to recognition. "Lord Palmerston listened," 
 says Mr. Mason in a dispatch of March 31st, "with 
 interest and attention while I unfolded fully the pur 
 pose of the dispatch and of my interview. In reply 
 he, at once, assured me that the objections entertained 
 
DAEK DAYS IN EICHMOND 357 
 
 by his government were those which had been avowed ; 
 and that there was nothing (I use his own word) 
 ' underlying 7 them." 1 
 
 The 'great sacrifice, therefore, had been offered in 
 vain. Whether it would have availed anything if pro 
 posed earlier in the struggle is an open question ; now, 
 certainly, it was too late, for, three days after the time 
 when Mason was recording Palrnerston's reply, General 
 Lee fell back from the lines before Eichmond, and the 
 Confederate government, fugitive and desperately 
 maintaining for a few weeks the show of organization, 
 may be said to have come to an end with the fall of 
 that city. 
 
 1 Mason, pp. 552-560. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 STARTING LIFE ANEW 
 
 " NOTHING will end the war," Mr. Benjamin had 
 written to Mr. Mann, February 1, 1864, " but the utter 
 exhaustion of the belligerents, unless by the action of 
 some of the leading powers of Europe. " Eeluctaut 
 were he and Mr. Davis alike to believe that the Con 
 federacy was exhausted, and till the news came from 
 General Lee, on April 2d, that Eichmond could no 
 longer be held, both refused to despond. For some 
 weeks, however, the packing of government archives 
 had been going on quietly, and Mr. Benjamin had been 
 preparing to destroy the secret service papers whose 
 capture would compromise persons within the power 
 of the enemy ; so that when the inevitable moment 
 came, and General Lee's message was delivered to 
 Mr. Davis in St. Paul's Church, all was ready for im 
 mediate removal to some spot that might, for the time, 
 be safer. 
 
 So many have pictured for us the last scenes of Con 
 federate Eichmond that we need not linger over them 
 here. Mr. Benjamin and other officers of the govern 
 ment went to Danville, where a halt was made and tem 
 porary headquarters were opened. The devoted Dr. 
 Hoge, wishing to continue his duties as a chaplain ' l so 
 long as the Confederate flag flew," had come out from 
 Eichmond on the night of April 2d. " The next fore 
 noon," he says, 1 " while walking on the streets in 
 1 Lawley MS. 
 
STABTING LIFE ANEW 359 
 
 Danville I met Mr. Benjamin. . . . After greeting 
 him I asked him where he was staying. He told me 
 he had not secured accommodations anywhere. It was 
 a new thing, I doubt not, in his experience to be un 
 certain about his immediate movements j it had always 
 been his good fortune to lay his plans skilfully and ex 
 ecute them as well. I told him I was the guest of a 
 most estimable and hospitable gentleman, J. M. Johns 
 ton, an officer in one of the Danville banks, with whom 
 I was on such terms that I could invite any friend of 
 mine to his house with the assurance of receiving a 
 cordial welcome. Mr. Benjamin thanked me warmly, 
 but said that even if my host would welcome him he 
 could not think of intruding on me by occupying a 
 part of my room. . . . Finally, on my assurance 
 that, so far from incommoding me, it would be a great 
 pleasure to have such a roommate, he consented, and 
 accompanied me to Mr. Johnston's house. Just as I 
 anticipated, the whole family gave Mr. Benjamin a 
 cordial welcome, and he was quickly made to feel at 
 home." 
 
 Here an anxious week was spent, during which the 
 secretary managed to make himself a thoroughly 
 agreeable guest, and to win Dr. Hoge's heart by the 
 many "little things' 7 in which he showed his native 
 regard for the feelings of others, his thorough gentle 
 ness and courtesy. When he found it to be the custom 
 of the family to have prayers read, he attended punc 
 tually, seeking neither to evade nor to obtrude, but 
 accepting it all naturally. There was little to do but 
 talk, and in this he consistently suggested cheerful 
 themes, and " never made a remark . . . that jarred 
 upon a principle or sentiment, even," of his reverend 
 
360 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 friend. They discussed topics literary and artistic : 
 " We had some friendly arguments about the place 
 Tennyson would occupy in history. He was a passion 
 ate admirer of Tennyson, and, I think, ranked him 
 above all the English poets, Shakespeare excepted. 
 When I would suggest that Tennyson had never writ 
 ten anything equal to Comus, or II Penseroso, or 
 U Allegro, or to Dry den in his vigorous and masterly 
 use of the English language, or to some of the stanzas 
 of Childe Harold, he would always be ready with a 
 reference to some passage of his favorite author to con 
 fute my statement. He seemed to be as familiar with 
 literature as with law, and among our public men I 
 cannot recall one who was a more accomplished belles 
 lettres scholar. " 
 
 But the sublime serenity and courage of those who 
 could thus resolutely keep up their hearts by brilliant 
 talk in the midst of shipwreck is only a gleam of sun 
 shine to darken the clouds of disaster. It is not well, 
 indeed, to fiddle while Eome burns. But if there be 
 one thing above another with which the South may 
 honestly comfort herself it is that her people of un 
 broken spirit did not sit down and weep. 
 
 "Sires have lost their children, wives 
 Their lords, and valiant men their lives ; 
 One what best his love might claim 
 Hath lost ; another, wealth or fame. 
 Woe is me, Alhama ! '' 
 
 It was by a people who would not allow themselves 
 to brood over what they must now live without, that 
 the damage and the loss must be repaired and made 
 good. 
 
STABTING LIFE ANEW 361 
 
 On Monday, April 9th, Mr. Benjamin beckoned Dr. 
 Hoge quietly aside, after a general conversation with 
 the ladies in which he had joined with customary 
 cheerfulness. When they were out of hearing, he said : 
 "I did not have the heart to tell those good ladies 
 what I have just learned. General Lee has surrendered 
 and I fear the Confederate cause is lost." He added, 
 that he would accompany the President to Greensboro, 
 whither they must retreat at once ; but he evidently 
 considered the cause hopelessly ruined, for he told Dr. 
 Hoge that he would, if the worst came, use every 
 means to escape capture, having resolved never to be 
 taken alive. Since various stories of theatrical effect, 
 hinting at suicide by pistol or (this more in keeping 
 with the Mephistophelian or Borgian character ascribed 
 to him at the North) the concealed poison of a ring, 
 have been circulated, it may be as well to add that 
 Dr. Hoge distinctly states there was no such puerility 
 in his calm statement of his determination. 
 
 Burton Harrison, private secretary to President 
 Davis, has told entertainingly of the subsequent ad 
 ventures of the fugitive government, 1 with which we 
 shall soon have done. At Greensboro they halted but 
 a few days, and from there on, the railroad, poor as it 
 was, must be abandoned. The little procession was 
 made up of army wagons, ambulances, carriages, and 
 mounted men, among whom were the President and 
 most of his cabinet. Mr. Benjamin, however, being 
 short and stout, and unused to horseback riding, joined 
 General Cooper, another very stout individual, Jules 
 St. Martin, and Attorney-General Davis, in an ambu 
 lance drawn by a pair of broken-down old grays. Mr. 
 
 1 Century Magazine, November, 1883. 
 
362 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Harrison records that, one night, he rode up to this 
 forlorn vehicle and found it stuck fast in a mud-hole. 
 He went off to get help to haul it out, and " returning 
 to them again, I could see from afar the occasional 
 bright glow of Benjamin's cheerful cigar. While the 
 others of the party were perfectly silent, Benjamin's 
 silvery voice was presently heard as he rhythmically 
 intoned, for their comfort, verse after verse of Tenny 
 son' s ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington ! ' ' 
 He was the life of the party, said one of these fugitives 
 afterward, and his good humor helped them all to 
 bear the trials of the road. From Greensboro to 
 Charlotte, and thence to Abbeville they went. Mr. 
 Benjamin, when the need came, " dexterously got 
 himself into the saddle upon a tall horse, and, with 
 short legs hanging but an inconsiderable distance to 
 ward the ground, rode gayly off with the others of the 
 President's following." But when the news of Gen 
 eral Johnston's surrender arrived, and Mr. Davis had 
 announced his determination to try to make his way 
 to Texas and join Kirby Smith, Mr. Benjamin, writes 
 Mrs. Davis, 1 i ' came to him and said : i I could not 
 bear the fatigue of riding as you do, and as I can serve 
 our people no more just now, will you consent to my 
 making an effort to escape through Florida ? If you 
 should be in a condition to require me again, I will 
 answer your call at once. 7 This was his considerate 
 manner of saying all was lost in his opinion. ' ' Having 
 left in charge of some friends near Abbeville a trunk 
 containing the whole of his personal belongings ex 
 cept what he wore, he parted from the President at the 
 
 1 Letter in Lawley MS. ; similar accounts in Davis's Rise and Fall, 
 Vol. II, p. 694. 
 
STARTING LIFE ANEW 363 
 
 house where they stopped for breakfast (" Vienna," 
 says Dr. Hoge), near Washington, Ga., and from this 
 point we can trust him to tell, in a series of letters to 
 Mrs. Rruttschnitt, his own story of the perils of the 
 next three months : 
 
 "Nassau, 22d July, 1865. 
 
 " My darling Sister : I arrived here last evening all 
 safe and sound, and will depart in two hours on board 
 the schooner Britannia for Havana, whence I shall 
 take the first steamer for Europe. I cannot, therefore, 
 write you a quarter of what I should like to tell you, 
 but must do the best I can and hope that this letter 
 will be allowed to reach you. 
 
 "I separated from President Davis near Washing 
 ton, Georgia, early in May, last, having been requested 
 by him to make niy way through Florida to this place 
 or Havana, and after attending to some public busi 
 ness, to rejoin him in the Trans-Mississippi District, 
 by the way of Matamoras and Texas. 
 
 u I started on my journey on horseback, and knowing 
 it to be a hazardous one, I determined to disguise my 
 self and assume a false name. I cannot begin to give 
 you the details of my adventures. I found my most 
 successful disguise to be that of a farmer. I professed 
 to be traveling in Florida in search of land on which 
 to settle, with some friends who desired to move from 
 South Carolina. I got a kind farmer's wife to make 
 me some homespun clothes just like her husband's. I 
 got for my horse the commonest and roughest equip 
 ment that I could find, and I journeyed as far as pos 
 sible on by-roads, always passing around towns and 
 keeping in the least inhabited districts. My progress 
 was necessarily slow, about thirty miles a day, till I 
 reached central Florida. I had intended going to East 
 Florida and trying to cross the Gulf from Indian River, 
 but I learned that there was not a vessel to be found 
 there, and that the risk of detection would be great. 
 I heard also of the proclamation in which a large re- 
 
364 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ward was offered for the capture of the President, who 
 was most outrageously accused of having connived at 
 the assassination of President Lincoln. Everything 
 satisfied me of the savage cruelty with which the 
 hostile government would treat any Confederate leader 
 who might happen to fall into their hands, and I pre 
 ferred death in attempting to escape, to such captivity 
 as awaited me, if I became their prisoner. 
 
 "I made my way, therefore, to the western coast of 
 Florida, and was nearly a month in procuring a small 
 boat and securing the services of two trusty persons to 
 accompany me in the perilous effort to cross the Gulf 
 of Mexico in a little open boat. I finally departed on 
 the 23d June, and after a voyage of about six hundred 
 miles in a yawl-boat open to the weather, with no place 
 to sleep, and exposed to frequent squalls, some very 
 severe, I happily arrived at the Bernini Isles on the 
 Bahama reef, on Monday the 10th instant. Here my 
 risk of capture was at an end, and I deemed it safe to 
 take passage in a small sloop, loaded with sponge, for 
 Nassau. We left Bernini on Thursday afternoon, the 
 13th, and on Friday morning about half-past seven 
 o'clock, the sloop foundered at sea, thirty miles from 
 the nearest land, sinking with such rapidity that we 
 had barely time to jump into a small skiff that the 
 sloop had in tow before she went to the bottom. 
 
 1 i In the skiff, leaky, with but a single oar, with no 
 provisions save a pot of rice that had just been cooked 
 for breakfast, and a small keg of water, I found myself 
 at eight o'clock in the morning, with three negroes for 
 my companions in disaster, only five inches of the boat 
 out of water, on the broad ocean, with the certainty 
 that we could not survive five minutes if the sea be 
 came the least rough. We started, however, quite 
 courageously for the land, and without any signs of 
 trepidation from any one on board, and the weather 
 continuing very calm we proceeded landward till about 
 eleven o'clock, when a vessel was discerned in the 
 distance, which was supposed to be a small schooner 
 
STARTING LIFE ANEW 365 
 
 and which we felt sure of reaching if the weather con 
 tinued calm. We made for the vessel, the three 
 negroes using the single oar by turns in sculling our 
 little boat, and by five o' clock in the afternoon were 
 safely on board H. B. M. Light House Yacht Georgina, 
 a fine large brig, on board of which we were warmly 
 received, and treated very kindly by Captain Stuart. 
 The vessel was on a tour of inspection of the Bahama 
 lighthouses, but Captain Stuart turned out of his way 
 to put me back at Bernini, where I arrived for the sec 
 ond time on Saturday, the 15th. I immediately 
 chartered another sloop to bring me here, and we 
 started the same afternoon. The voyage is only about 
 one hundred miles, but we were so baffled by calms, 
 squalls, and head winds, that we were six days making 
 it, and I arrived last evening only to learn that if I do 
 not depart this morning for Havana, I may be detained 
 a month before I get another chance to leave this 
 island. I am thoroughly exhausted, and need rest, 
 though in perfect health, but I must not yield to fatigue 
 under the circumstances, and so I am passing this 
 morning in writing letters to go by the Corsica steamer 
 for New York on Monday, as I know how intense must 
 be the anxiety of all I love on both sides the At 
 lantic, until news is received of my safety. 
 
 ' ' In passing through Georgia I left with a friend 
 nine hundred dollars in gold, all that I could spare, to 
 be sent to Sis and Hatty at La Grange. I trust they re 
 ceived the money, as they must have suffered if they 
 had none but Confederate notes. I don't know how to 
 write to them, and must trust to you, my darling, to 
 send them this letter or a copy of it, that they may be 
 relieved of all solicitude on my account. 
 
 1 ' I can as yet give you no idea of my plans or pur 
 poses. Until I reach England I can't tell what my 
 condition is. I may be penniless, but I have strong 
 reason to hope that some six or seven hundred bales of 
 cotton which I own, reached Europe in safety. If so, 
 I shall be beyond want for some years, and can supply 
 
366 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 all the needs of my dear sisters, and await events be 
 fore determining my future course. If, however, I 
 find that I have nothing left, I shall use my pen for a 
 support for the present, in the English press, if I can 
 so manage, as I have every reason to believe that I 
 would find ready employment in that way. 
 
 "I am contented and cheerful under all reverses, 
 and only long to hear of the health and happiness of 
 those I love. I send you a thousand kisses, my own 
 sweet sister, which you can distribute among your 
 little darlings for me. Write me at once all the news 
 about the family, and address me to care of Fraser,Tren- 
 holm and Company, Liverpool. 
 
 "I will write again from Havana. My best and 
 kindest memories for dear Kitt." 
 
 In the interest of the narrative, we shall not pause 
 now to draw attention to such things as his unfailing 
 care for the well-being of those dependent on him. We 
 may supplement the story by noting, from an " inter 
 view " with H. A. McOleod, 1 that he was one of the two 
 brave boatmen who sailed from Manatee with Mr. 
 Benjamin, "an awful nervy man." Furthermore, 
 from a letter to Mr. Bayard, 2 describing the in 
 cidents of the escape, we learn that the reason for the 
 sudden foundering of the sloop was her being too 
 tightly packed with wet sponge which, expanding as it 
 dried, burst the seams of the vessel ; and that in the 
 strong current of the Gulf Stream, and in the main 
 channel where they were in hourly danger of being 
 " saved " by some Federal cruiser, they came near being 
 swept past the Bernini Islands. There was yet more to 
 come : 
 
 1 Galveston Daily News, May 27, 1884. 
 a Oct. 20, 1865. 
 
STAKTING LIFE ANEW 367 
 
 ' i Havana, 1st August, 1865. 
 
 1 i I wrote to you from Nassau, my darling sister, and 
 sent you a long account of my perils and sufferings in 
 effecting my escape from the Yankees. I left Nassau 
 on the day after my arrival there (on the 22d July), 
 and arrived here on the 25th, after a very favorable 
 passage, the first lucky weather that I have had on my 
 voyages. I have now recovered entirely from my 
 fatigue, have had time to provide myself with com 
 fortable clothing, and have been received here with 
 great kindness and attention. I shall leave for England 
 by the steamer of the 6th (my birthday), and hope to 
 see my wife and daughter once more by the 1st of Sep 
 tember. 
 
 "This letter will be carried to you by Alexander 
 Benjamin, a young kinsman with whom I made ac 
 quaintance in Nassau. It seems that he is a grandson 
 of Emanuel Benjamin, our uncle, and is therefore sec 
 ond cousin to us. I have been very much pleased with 
 him, and am greatly indebted to him for the unwearied 
 kindness and attention with which he set himself to 
 work to supply my numberless wants when I arrived 
 at Nassau. He was the chief clerk of Mr. Heyliger, 
 who was the agent of the Confederate government at 
 Nassau, and is an excellent man of business, as well as 
 a gentleman in manners, feelings, and deportment. 
 Every one in Nassau spoke of him in high terms, and 
 I beg, my love, that you will give him a warm and 
 cordial welcome for my sake. I am quite taken with 
 him. 
 
 " Since my arrival here, General Kirby Smith has 
 arrived from Mexico, but is unable to give me any 
 news of my dear Joe and Lionel. I am quite anxious 
 to hear of them, and beg that you will not fail to give 
 me any news of them, as well as of our poor forlorn 
 sisters, by the very first mail for Liverpool. If you 
 give your letters to Mr. Benjamin, he will know how 
 to forward them without fear of their being intercepted. 
 I trust that Sis and Hatty have been able to reach New 
 
368 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Orleans in safety, and I take it for granted that they 
 would return there as their best refuge. From what I 
 have learned since my arrival here I have very strong 
 reason for believing that I have saved about 600 bales 
 of cotton, and in that event I will have no difficulty in 
 providing for them so as to place them above want. 
 
 " I did not write you in my last of the narrow escape 
 I had from water-spouts when in my little boat at sea. 
 I had never seen a water -spout, and often expressed a 
 desire to be witness of so striking a phenomenon. I 
 got, however, more than I bargained for. On the 
 night before I reached Bernini, after a day of intense 
 heat, the entire horizon was black with squalls. We 
 took in our sail, uustepped the mast, and as we were 
 on soundings, we let go the anchor in order to ride out 
 the squalls in safety. They were forming all around 
 us, and as there was no wind, it was impossible to tell 
 which of them would strike us. At about nine o'clock, 
 however, a very heavy, lurid cloud in the west dipped 
 down toward the sea, and in a single minute two large 
 water-spouts were formed, and the wind began blow 
 ing furiously directly toward us, bringing the water 
 spouts in a straight line for our boat. They were at 
 the distance of a couple of miles, and did not seem to 
 travel very fast. The furious whirl of the water could 
 be distinctly heard, as in a long waving column that 
 swayed about in the breeze and extended from the 
 ocean up into the cloud, the spouts advanced in their 
 course. If they had struck us we would have been 
 swamped in a second, but before they reached us the 
 main squall was upon us with such a tremendous blast 
 of wind and rain combined that it was impossible to 
 face the drops of water which were driven into our eyes 
 with such violence as to compel us instantly to turn 
 our backs to it, while it seemed that the force of the 
 wind was so great that it would press our little boat 
 bodily down into the sea. The waves were not high, 
 the strength of the blast being such as to keep the sur 
 face of the water compressed. On turning our backs 
 
STABTING LIFE ANEW 369 
 
 to this tremendous squall, judge of our dismay on see 
 ing another water-spout formed in another squall in the 
 east, also traveling directly towards us, although the 
 wind was blowing with such fury from the west. There 
 must have been contrary currents at different heights 
 in the air, and we had scarcely caught sight of this new 
 danger, when the two spouts first seen passed our boat 
 at a distance of about one hundred yards (separated 
 from each other by about a quarter of a mile), tearing 
 up the whole surface of the sea as they passed, and 
 whirling it furiously into the clouds, with a roar such 
 as is heard at the foot of the Niagara Falls. The west 
 ern blast soon reached the spout that had been coming 
 toward us from the east and checked its career. It 
 wavered and broke, and the two other spouts continued 
 their awful race across the ocean until we lost sight of 
 them in the blackness of the horizon. A quarter of 
 an hour after, all was calm and still, and our boat was 
 lazily heaving and setting on the long swell of the 
 Bahama Sea. It was a scene and picture that has be 
 come photographed into nay brain, and that I can never 
 forget. 
 
 " We are all in intense anxiety on the subject of our 
 honored and noble chief, Jefferson Davis. By the 
 last accounts there was every probability that those in 
 power at Washington would succeed in getting rid of 
 him by the tortures inflicted on him in prison, and that 
 the delay in trying him was intended to give time for 
 this moral assassination. No nobler gentleman, no 
 purer man, no more exalted patriot ever drew breath ; 
 and eternal infamy will blacken the base and savage 
 wretches who are now taking advantage of their brief 
 grasp of power to wreak a cowardly vengeance on his 
 honored head. 
 
 1 ' On looking over the New Orleans papers I see that 
 many of our old friends are returning, and I specially 
 note that Payne, Huntington & Co. have resumed 
 business. Don't fail to let me know if my dear friend 
 Wash [Huntington] is in New Orleans, and if so, give 
 
370 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 him a thousand memories of love and friendship for 
 me, and say that I will write to him from Liverpool. 
 You can read to him those parts of my letters that don't 
 refer to family affairs. 
 
 1 i I long, dearest, beyond expression to see you all 
 once more, and to have your darling chicks gathered 
 round the knee of ' Uncle Ben. ' You must write me 
 fully about them all, as well as about your own health, 
 and dear Kittfs health and purposes whether he is 
 going into business, etc., etc." 
 
 The sequel of the story is given in the next letter : 
 
 ' ' 17 Savile Row, London, 29th September, 1865. 
 
 u I have received . . . a whole volume of letters 
 from home within the last few days. ... I can 
 only answer now in a general letter for you all, but a 
 little later I will be able to regularize my correspond 
 ence. As you will all want to know what my move 
 ments are, and what I expect to do, I will begin with 
 myself, as all egotists do, and then pass on to the family 
 matters. 
 
 " You must have heard through the papers that my 
 adventures and perils were not ended at Havana. On 
 my voyage to England the small steamer which con 
 veyed me to St. Thomas arrived two or three days be 
 fore the larger vessel which was to take us to South 
 ampton. I consequently had an opportunity of seeing 
 the scenes of my early childhood, but of course my 
 memory was very indistinct, as I was a mere infant 
 when we left that island for Wilmington. We left 
 St. Thomas at about 4 p. M., on the 13th August (I 
 think that was the day), and at about half-past nine 
 o'clock that night, when we were about sixty miles at 
 sea the ship was found to be on fire in the forehold. 
 The fire proved to be a very serious one, the boats were 
 all prepared and provisioned for our abandoning the 
 ship if necessary, and the vessel's head was at once 
 turned back toward St. Thomas. By dint of great ex- 
 
STABTING LIFE ANEW 371 
 
 ertion and admirable conduct and discipline exhibited 
 by all on board, the flames were kept from bursting 
 through the deck till we got back to the harbor of St. 
 Thomas, where we arrived at about three o'clock in 
 the morning with seven feet of water in the hold poured 
 in by the steam pumps, and the deck burned to within 
 an eighth of an inch of the entire thickness. By the 
 aid of other vessels in the harbor the fire was extin 
 guished : the burned cargo removed : the forehold 
 cleared of ashes and cinders, and in two more days we 
 started afresh and reached England without further 
 accident. If the fire had been discovered only one hour 
 later, it would have been impossible to extinguish it, 
 and I would have been cast adrift on the ocean for the 
 third time in a little open boat. 
 
 ' 4 1 was compelled to remain a week in London on 
 public business before crossing the Channel to see my 
 family, and on my arrival in Paris had the happiness 
 of embracing them in perfect health, my daughter be 
 ing now radically cured of her lifelong disorder, and 
 looking as blooming as a rose. I also found letters 
 from Jules giving an account of his visit to New Or 
 leans, and of his seeing you all, and he even commit 
 ted the gross flattery of writing to my wife that ' Ben's 
 sister is charming.' 
 
 * 1 1 am now back in London partly on public and 
 partly on private business. I am almost fixed in my 
 purpose to practice my profession as barrister in Lon 
 don, but have not yet quite decided, because I still 
 lack information about the rules and regulations for 
 the admission of strangers, and the delay may perhaps 
 be so great as to deter me. It will also be necessary 
 for me to become naturalized. 
 
 i i I have been treated with great kindness and dis 
 tinction, and have been called on by Lord Campbell 
 and Sir James Ferguson, the former a peer and the 
 latter of the House of Commons, both accidentally in 
 London, for the i whole world,' as they say, is now in 
 the country, this being the ' long vacation ' in London, 
 
372 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Both assured me that I would meet the utmost aid and 
 sympathy, and would be called on by a large number 
 of the leading public men here, as soon as they returned 
 to town. Mr. I)' Israeli also wrote to a friend of mine 
 expressing the desire of being useful to me when he 
 should arrive in town, and I have been promised a 
 dinner at which I am to be introduced to Gladstone 
 and Tennyson as soon as the season opens here. 
 
 ' < I have also received news that one hundred bales 
 of my cotton are safely at sea, so that I shall have the 
 means of living for two or three years, and am thus 
 quite easy for the time being, and with good prospects 
 ahead. In Paris, I dined with Slidell and was intro 
 duced to some bankers who hinted that if I wished to 
 live in France, it would be easy to obtain an honorable 
 and lucrative position in the financial circles, but this 
 is far less tempting than my old profession. My old 
 friend, Mme. de Pontalba, 1 also is imperious in her 
 urgency that I should remain in France, and promises 
 all sorts of aids and influence in my behalf, but I re 
 peat that nothing is more independent, nor offers a 
 more promising future, than admission as a barrister 
 to the bar of London. 
 
 1 ' I had the pleasure of meeting Bradford for a few 
 hours in Liverpool a day or two ago. He goes to New 
 Orleans and you will have a chance of hearing that I 
 look as well and as i young ' as ever. So now enough 
 of self. . . . 
 
 " I want you to send me cartes de visiles of all the 
 family, for those which I received in Eichmond are in 
 my trunk which is concealed on the other side, and I 
 may perhaps never recover it. 
 
 1 i I am glad that Joe has gone to work again. I do 
 not doubt his success, for it is impossible that the 
 negroes should not at some early day be ruled under a 
 system which will compel them to labor for their liv. 
 
 'Well known in New Orleans, as are the " Pontalba Buildings " 
 around Jackson Square. 
 
STAKTING LIFE ANEW 373 
 
 ing, and if so planting will be very profitable for years 
 to come. . . . 
 
 " I am quite anxious to hear from Kitt. Tell him to 
 write me fully and frankly. If he sees a fair opening 
 for business, and if a moderate capital be required to 
 aid him in establishing it, I think I could readily find 
 him a silent partner on this side who would be willing 
 to advance it on favorable terms. 
 
 "I don't think that our dear Sis and Hatty should 
 remain in La Grange, separated from all they love. It 
 seems to me that they could take a house in New Or 
 leans in connection with Lionel as formerly ; and with 
 their industry and economy the expenses would be 
 small, and I am sure I will be able to help them to 
 some extent, say about seventy-five dollars a month, 
 and in the meantime something better may turn up. 
 They must feel very desolate and lonesome, and it is 
 not necessary that they should be rendered unhappy 
 by such a trial." 
 
 These admirable letters give us so full a chronicle 
 that there is little for me to add, except by way of 
 comment. In addition to their service for the narra 
 tive, they yield us a glimpse into that happy private 
 life which was so religiously cherished, and guarded as 
 if it would be profaned by the public gaze. Over all 
 the members of the family he would extend his care ; 
 and while in the midst of misfortunes himself, he does 
 not forget to think and devise for them. To the facts 
 we may add that he arrived at Southampton, as he 
 writes to Mr. Bayard, " on the 30th August, nearly 
 four months after my separation from the President, 
 during which time I had spent twenty-three days seated 
 in the thwart of an open boat, exposed to a tropical sun 
 in June and July, utterly without shelter or change of 
 clothes. I never, however, had one minute's indisposi- 
 
374 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 tion nor despondency, but was rather pleasantly exalted 
 by the feeling of triumph in disappointing the malice 
 of my enemies." It is an altogether remarkable feat 
 of endurance, this escape, for a man used to a sedentary 
 life and already in his fifty -fourth year. Nor is the 
 buoyancy of spirit, the indomitable will to make a 
 fresh start in the world, less remarkable. ' 
 
 Arriving in London, one of his first cares, with Mr. 
 Mason and others, was what one might call completing 
 the obsequies of the Confederacy, counseling with them 
 as to winding up the affairs of their offices, disposing 
 of papers, etc. Deeply and sincerely grieved at the 
 sufferings of his people, and especially at the hardships 
 of the imprisonment to which Mr. Davis was sub 
 jected, he wrote at once to Mrs. Davis, sending the 
 letter to the care of Mr. T. F. Bayard. Feeling, too, 
 that Mr. Davis should be defended from the mean 
 calumnies that were being spread, he wrote a long let 
 ter to the London Times (September 12th), which is an 
 admirable defense of the Confederates against the 
 charge of deliberate cruelty to prisoners. This very 
 painful topic has been much discussed j no one, I 
 suppose, now believes that Jefferson Davis starved the 
 Federal prisoners at Andersonville and denied them 
 salt and medicines; if so, it is peculiar that "Lee's 
 Miserables" were subjected to similar privations, and 
 that the eminently humane government of the United 
 States declared contraband of war, and seized wher 
 ever possible, every drug that could relieve the sick, 
 every anesthetic that could soothe the tortures of the 
 
 1 The London Times, in its obituary, May 9, 1884, comments on 
 this " elastic resistance to evil fortune " as perhaps a race charac 
 teristic. 
 
STARTING LIFE ANEW 375 
 
 wounded under the knife of the surgeon. Mr. Benja 
 min's letter 1 on the subject is marked by those charac 
 teristics that almost invariably distinguish his writings 
 at a time when the greatest violence of language was 
 deemed the proper thing on both sides : perfect cool 
 ness, calm logic, dignified expression. That his words 
 do not lack force we may judge from this paragraph, 
 concerning the responsibility for the refusal of the 
 Federals to exchange prisoners of war, which kept An- 
 dersonville full, and Confederate armies empty : "It 
 requires no sagacity to perceive that every motive of 
 interest as well as of humanity operated to induce us to 
 facilitate the exchange of prisoners, and to submit 
 even to unjust and unequal terms in order to recover 
 soldiers whom we could replace from no other source. 
 On the other hand, interest and humanity were at war 
 in their influence on the Federal officials. Others 
 must judge of the humanity and justice of the policy 
 which consigned hundreds of thousands of wretched 
 men to captivity apparently hopeless, but I can testify 
 unhesitatingly to its sagacity and efficacy, and to the 
 pitiless sternness with which it was executed. Indeed 
 this refusal to exchange was one of the most fatal 
 blows dealt us during the war, and contributed to our 
 overthrow more, perhaps, than any other single meas 
 ure. I write not to make complaint of it, but simply to 
 protest against the attempt of the Federals so to divide 
 the consequences of their own conduct as to throw on 
 us the odium attached to a cruelty plainly injurious 
 to us, obviously beneficial to themselves. " 
 
 On the passage across the Atlantic, it is evident, Mr. 
 Benjamin's political opinions had not suffered a sea 
 
 Reprinted in the N. Y. Times, Sept. 27, 1865. 
 
376 JTTDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 change, nor did they ever. General Taylor said that 
 the Confederacy was dead, and he was tired of sitting 
 by the corpse, and had conie away. Mr. Benjamin, 
 too, accepted as decisive the ruin of the cause ; but not 
 only was he ever ready to speak in its defense, and ever 
 ready to help fellow- sufferers in the shipwreck, but he 
 also relished conversations that would revive old mem 
 ories. From his private letters he never entered 
 politics nor made a political address again I shall 
 quote, from time to time, little references to conditions 
 existing in his old home. 
 
 For the present, however, the pressing business was 
 to provide for the bodily needs of the day and to make 
 some plan for the future that would repair a fortune 
 now gone for the second time. He had staked all on the 
 Confederacy, and nearly all was lost. Much of his 
 money, earned at the bar in New Orleans, had been in 
 real estate, a form of investment that could not 
 very readily be made available, and that, moreover, 
 could not be concealed from the enemy. As intimated 
 in the letters to his sister, he had tried at the last to 
 save in cotton all that he had left. But when he got to 
 England the "six or seven hundred bales," which 
 would have been a large fortune, had shrunk to about 
 one hundred, and these had not yet arrived. He was 
 practically penniless when he landed, and must provide 
 for immediate needs by his wits, unless he would con 
 sent to borrow. The editor of the Daily Telegraph 
 writes that Mr. Benjamin came to him with a letter of 
 introduction, obtained through Bennett Burleigh, and 
 continues : * u I gave him forthwith occasional work in 
 writing leaders on subjects of international law or in- 
 
 1 Lawley MS. 
 
STABTING LIFE ANEW 377 
 
 ternational policy." Personal support being thus pro 
 vided for, he was relieved to find that his one hundred 
 bales of cotton had really come out safely ; though a poor 
 remnant of fortune for him, it would be sufficient to 
 supply the needs of those dependent on him. As for 
 himself he could submit to close living till better times 
 should arrive. Those ever loyal friends, the Bayards, 
 wrote to offer him pecuniary assistance, to which he re 
 plied (October 20th) : "I cannot describe to you, my 
 dear friend, how deeply I am touched by the kind and 
 generous offer of yourself and son, and if I needed aid, 
 there is no one from whom I could consent to receive 
 pecuniary assistance sooner than yourselves. Fortu 
 nately this is not the case. I was very poor when I 
 landed here, and had barely enough to support my 
 family for a few months. I have been lucky enough to 
 receive, however, a hundred bales of cotton that have 
 escaped Yankee vigilance ; and the price here is so 
 high that it has given me nearly twenty thousand dol 
 lars, besides which I have made already almost ten 
 thousand dollars by means of information furnished by 
 a kind friend in relation to the affairs of a financial 
 institution, in which I invested my little fortune, and 
 which has already increased in market value fifty per 
 cent. so you see I am not quite a beggar." 
 
 But his misfortunes were not at an end. Some six 
 months later the failure of Overend, Gurney & Co. 
 swept away much of this little accumulated capital, and 
 made more urgent the need for adding to his income, 
 and meantime for strict economy on his own part. He 
 had written home (December 20th): "Tell Sis and 
 Hatty, to write me and let me know how money 
 matters are getting on, and not to hesitate to write me 
 
378 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 if they are the least in want, as I can always find a few 
 hundred dollars without pinching myself, and I have 
 no fears of my ability to make a handsome competence 
 at the bar here." He felt he must, if humanly pos 
 sible, live up to this obligation ; to do so he had to 
 pinch himself, though those at home did not know of 
 it at the time. Mrs. Bradford, who was much in Lon 
 don during these months of struggle before he could 
 earn a competence at the bar, reports that he lived as 
 simply as he could in bachelor's quarters, dined fur 
 tively, sometimes on bread and cheese, at cheap 
 restaurants where it would hardly do for him to be 
 seen, if he hoped to maintain the dignity expected of a 
 barrister, and cultivated the habit of walking (he did 
 not like it), since the penny 'bus was beneath a bar 
 rister's rank, while cabs were somewhat above this 
 one's means. He used to dine with Mrs. Bradford al 
 most every Sunday ; and after manifest enjoyment of 
 such a good dinner, in a moment of post-prandial re 
 laxation once confessed to her something of these little 
 economies. But he was not of a sort to make a parade 
 of his troubles, nor did he let them mar either his good 
 humor or his confidence in the ultimate success of his 
 venture at the English bar. 
 
 That a man of fifty-four, who had always used his 
 energies to the full limit of endurance, and who must 
 start anew the battle of life after four years of such 
 labor as he had undertaken during the war, should re 
 ject all offers of pecuniary assistance and all easier 
 modes of making money to begin again the practice of 
 law in a foreign land is, I think, a truly astonishing 
 exhibition of pluck. As soon as opportunity offered, 
 he started to look into the requirements for admission 
 
STAKTING LIFE ANEW 379 
 
 to the bar, hoping to take up his studies at once. 
 " But I find one cannot be allowed to commence in the 
 middle of a term, and as the next term only begins on 
 the llth January, I shall spend Christmas and New 
 Year with my wife and child, and return early next 
 month [letter dated December 20th] to commence my 
 new life.' 7 On January 13, 1866, he entered as a 
 student at Lincoln's Inn, and shortly afterward was ad 
 mitted to "read law" under the instruction of Charles 
 Pollock, later Baron Pollock, who himself tells 
 some little incidents in connection with this extraor 
 dinary pupil, to which we may turn after quoting Ben- 
 jamin's own humorous description of the Inns of Court 
 as then conducted. He writes to his old partner in 
 New Orleans (February 21, 1866) : 
 
 " My dear Bradford : ..... I am now 
 entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn and do not ex 
 pect to be called to the bar till next fall. I found on 
 inquiry that it would be more difficult than I had an 
 ticipated to get a dispensation from the rules of the dif 
 ferent Inns of Court, all of which require the keeping 
 of twelve terms ; i. e. , three years, before a call to the 
 bar. These terms are kept, as you are aware, simply 
 by eating a certain number of dinners in the hall of 
 the Society or Inn, that is to say, six dinners in each 
 term. I felt, of course, that I was not at all prepared 
 to practice under the English law, and after consulta 
 tion with friends, I concluded that the best plan was to 
 enter Lincoln's Inn, to keep four terms, employing my 
 self in close study, and at the end of that time (having 
 in the interim made as much interest as I could manage 
 with the Benches of the Inn), to apply for a special ex 
 ception and relaxation of the rules in my favor. In the 
 meantime I am making enough to pay for my personal 
 expenses by an engagement to contribute one leading 
 article a week to one of the daily papers, for which I 
 
380 JITDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 am paid 5 per week, and am thus enabled to devote 
 the small sum that I was able to save from the wreck 
 to the maintenance of my family till I can obtain some 
 practice at the bar. I think I have enough with close 
 economy to get through three years, and by that time 
 may be able to secure a decent practice. I could now 
 make 600 or 800 a year by consenting to become 
 sub-editor of the paper I refer to, but that would take 
 up nearly all my time and prevent my preparation for 
 the bar. I therefore restrict myself to one article a 
 week, although they offer to pay me for as many more 
 as I choose to write, not exceeding three a week. 
 
 " It will, I know, interest you to learn what were 
 the forms, etc. , attending my admission to the Inn. So 
 I shall even incur an extra postage and enclose you the 
 regulations. I had to pay, on admission, the following 
 sums : stamps 25 2s 6d, lectures 5 5s Od, admission 
 fee 5 12s 6d, printed form 1 Is Od, making a total 
 of 37 Is Od. I had then to deposit 100 as security 
 that I would pay for my dinners. The next step was 
 to enter a barrister's chambers with a view to learn 
 the course of practice, and for this the fee was 105. 
 I am now in the chambers of Mr. Charles Pollock, son 
 of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Frederick 
 Pollock. I am very kindly treated on all sides, and 
 was invited by the Chief Baron to spend a day with 
 him at his country seat at Hatton. We went down on 
 Saturday p. M. and returned on Monday morning, and 
 I spent a most charming day, the old gentleman, al 
 though eighty-three years old, being as lively and 
 sportive as a boy. 
 
 " You would be greatly amused to see our dinner at 
 Lincoln's Inn. There are tables at the head of the 
 room for the Benchers, who are the old leaders of the 
 bar, such as Lord Brougham, Lord St. Leonards, Sir 
 Eoundell Palmer, Sir Hugh Cairnes, etc., etc. Next 
 come tables for the barristers, of whom some forty 
 or fifty always are found at dinner. Next the students, 
 to the number of about one hundred and fifty, includ- 
 
STARTING LIFE ANEW 381 
 
 ing your humble servant, all seated at long tables, and 
 dressed in stun gowns, which the waiters throw over 
 us in the antechamber before we enter the dining-hall. 
 To each four persons, who constitute a mess, the waiter 
 serves a dinner composed of soup, one joint and vege 
 tables, one sweet dish, and cheese. A bottle of sherry 
 or port at choice is allowed to each mess (fiery stuff it 
 is), and bitter beer ad libitum. The charge for the 
 dinner is two shillings. No one at mess helps another, 
 but the etiquette is each in turn helps himself, one be 
 ing first for soup, the next first for the joint, and so on. 
 One dines almost every day with some stranger, but 
 the rule is that all are presumed to be gentlemen, and 
 conversation is at once established with entire aban 
 don, as if the parties were old acquaintances. 
 
 " When called to the bar, I shall take the Northern 
 Circuit, which includes Liverpool, where I hope to get 
 my first start with the aid of some of our old clients 
 there." 
 
 The late Baron Pollock, whose reminiscences I have 
 before referred to, 1 tells of the impression Benjamin 
 made upon one of his sisters on that visit to his father, 
 when Mr. Mason accompanied him. She had expected 
 to see a man of the conspirator type, or perhaps like 
 Jefferson Davis : " To my surprise, when he entered 
 the room, I saw a short, stout, genial man, of decidedly 
 Jewish descent, with bright, dark eyes, and all the po 
 liteness and bonhomie of a Frenchman, looking as if 
 he had never had a care in his life." Baron Pollock 
 also tells how, having at first declined Benjamin as a 
 pupil because he already had two in his small cham 
 bers, he was brought to reconsider this decision by his 
 father 7 s remark that the American had no need to learn 
 law, only to see something of the practice of the Eng- 
 
 l Green Bag, Sept., 1898. 
 
382 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 lish courts and to meet members of the bar. And 
 one of the first pieces of work Benjamin did in his of 
 fice impressed him strongly with the learning and read 
 iness of the student. The Metropolitan Policej to whom 
 he was counsel, sent him a paper asking his opinion, 
 u< as to the searching of prisoners,' involving the 
 right of the police to search such persons in their cus 
 tody before they have been convicted of any crime, for 
 different purposes, as, for instance, to find dangerous 
 weapons, stolen property, or possibly to take from a 
 drunken man his watch or other valuables for their 
 protection. I was leaving for court and threw it 
 across the table to Benjamin, saying, l Here is a case 
 made for you, on the right of search ' (alluding to the 
 Trent affair) . . . Benjamin took the papers, and 
 at once set to work to consider the authorities and deal 
 with the questions with such purpose that when I re 
 turned from court they were all disposed of. The only 
 fault to be found was that the learning was too great 
 for the occasion, going back to first principles in justi 
 fication of each answer. Many years after, I was told 
 that the opinion was held in high respect, and often re 
 ferred to by the police at the Home Office." 
 
 With all the proverbial English conservatism and re 
 spect for established rules, the authorities were wise 
 and generous enough to see that it would be absurd to 
 tax the digestion of such a man by the perfunctory 
 eating of six dozen dinners as a fit preparation for the 
 practice of a profession in which he was already a vet 
 eran. The only obstacle might have been his foreign 
 nationality ; but this was readily disposed of, for he 
 had been born of British parents and under the British 
 flag, and once a Briton always a Briton was an axiom 
 
STAETIKG LIFE ANEW 383 
 
 that swept aside, as if they had never been, the forty- 
 odd years of citizenship, and the services in the Senate of 
 a foreign power. i i By the influence of Lords Justices 
 Turner and Giffard, of Page Wood (Lord Hatherly), 
 and Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Benchers of the Society, 
 the Secretary of the Confederacy was dispensed from 
 the regular three years of unprofitable dining, and 
 called to the bar of Lincoln's Inn in Trinity term, 
 (June 6) 1866. l 
 
 1 London Times, May 9, 1884. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 
 
 BEFORE attempting to give such a condensed sketch 
 as our limits allow of the phenomenal success of this 
 young barrister of fifty -five, it will be well to sum up 
 the peculiar advantages and disadvantages of his posi 
 tion. First, of the disadvantages, the chief and most 
 obvious are his being a stranger, an exile under a po 
 litical ban, past the prime of life, and poor. The pov 
 erty his own skill and tireless industry could be relied 
 upon to offset and finally to overcome ; and the buoy 
 ant youthful spirit that had always been his was yet 
 unimpaired. His past record, politically, in America, 
 while it might earn him the sympathy of those who 
 had favored the Confederacy, did, it is alleged, make 
 the government slower to accord him the fitting re 
 ward of his abilities, and so may be said to have im 
 peded his progress. His being an alien was kindly 
 forgotten ; he himself testifies to the cordiality and 
 consideration with which a generous bar always 
 treated him. "From the first days of his coming," 
 said Sir Henry James, "he was one of us.' 7 
 
 As for the advantages, the obvious are his own ability 
 and determination to succeed. But we should not for 
 get the long years of peculiarly varied experience in 
 America, nor the special training in French and 
 Spanish law. Moreover, from the difference in the 
 practice of the English courts, with solicitors and bar 
 risters, the one preparing the facts of the case and the 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 385 
 
 other concerned only with the law and the pleading, 
 he derived another advantage ; for in his old home, of 
 course, he had been both solicitor and barrister, and so 
 was familiar with the duties of each and habituated to 
 more careful and thorough preparation than, perhaps, 
 may have been customary with his British brethren. 
 On these points Baron Pollock speaks as follows : 1 
 " One great and early advantage held by Benjamin was 
 this that he was . . . educated within the 
 state of Louisiana, . . . and, the law taught 
 and administered within it was that which took its 
 origin in the code of Justinian, and was afterward 
 adopted by the nations of Europe, and continued to be 
 the law of France until the Code Napoleon. The 
 principles and practice of this great system of law 
 Benjamin knew and appreciated thoroughly, and he 
 was at all times ready to point out its leading features, 
 and how they differed in principle from English law. 
 This also gave him a distinct position superior to his 
 brother advocates when arguing, before our judicial 
 committee of the privy council, appeals from those of 
 the English colonies of French origin which were 
 ceded to England before the code. . . . The pro 
 fession and duties of barrister and solicitor, which in 
 England are separate, are in America discharged by 
 one and the same person. . . . Benjamin . . . 
 had for years been a member of ... a legal 
 partnership. His clients were numerous, their busi 
 ness being principally of a mercantile character, and 
 few men had a sounder or wider range of knowledge 
 and experience of the law-merchant, including ship 
 ping, insurance, and foreign trading, than Benjamin, 
 
 1 Green Bag, Sept., 1898. 
 
386 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 long before lie ever thought of leaving America and 
 coming to England." 
 
 Here now is the late Confederate secretary entering 
 on his new career, with such special advantages and 
 disadvantages as I have sought to indicate. After 
 some little delay and trouble in securing suitable 
 chambers, he settled in those he was to occupy, 
 4 Lamb Buildings, for the remainder of his active life. 
 u Unlike most newly-called men," says Baron Pollock, 
 " he was not long allowed to be idle, although for some 
 time he was more occupied in answering cases and 
 advising on evidence than by holding briefs in court. 
 One of the first if not the very first pieces of work 
 which Benjamin did will illustrate his great experience 
 and untiring energy. An old established ship insurance 
 club was desirous of having its rules, which were very 
 lengthy, remodeled. The annual meeting of the club 
 was at hand, and the time remaining was so short that 
 two experienced counsel, who had for some years past 
 acted for it, declined the service, although some con 
 siderable fee was marked on the papers. Benjamin's 
 name was mentioned, and the instructions were sent to 
 him late one evening. Most men would probably have 
 looked up the rules of other similar clubs in order to 
 collate them and exhaust every source of improvement. 
 Not so Benjamin. His own knowledge of the require 
 ments told him what was wanting ; and the very next 
 morning, commencing after an early breakfast, and 
 never pausing for a midday meal, he worked on 
 steadily, and, shortly before eight, the hour at which 
 he usually dined, the rules were complete, written out 
 in his own neat hand, currente calamo, with scarce an 
 alteration or correction from beginning to end, as if he 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 387 
 
 had been composing a poem. I doubt if any draughts 
 man within the walls of the two Temples could have 
 done this so efficiently within the same time. ' ' 
 
 To Mr. Mason, with whom he had formed a closer 
 friendship during the trying months immediately suc 
 ceeding his arrival in England, he wrote * briefly of 
 his beginnings in the new field : " I have as you know 
 been called to the bar, and have chosen the Northern 
 Circuit, which embraces Liverpool. I have attended 
 assizes once at Liverpool, and have no reason as yet to 
 complain, though I have done very little, as my call 
 was just before the long vacation. But Michaelmas 
 term commences on the 29th inst., and I may have a 
 chance to appear in some cases. My time is spent in 
 close study, and we have not had a game of whist since 
 your departure. I am as much interested in my pro 
 fession as when I first commenced as a boy, and am 
 rapidly recovering all that I had partially forgotten in 
 the turmoil of public affairs." 
 
 As he had hoped, he was not long without practice 
 in the courts, beginning in this Michaelmas term. At 
 the close of his career before the bar he gratefully re 
 called the day when he first appeared as junior coun 
 sel to Sir W. B. Brett, " before the late Lord Justice 
 Lush, to whom I had not then the honor of being 
 known, [but] that learned judge wrote me immediately 
 a kind and affectionate note, congratulating me on 
 seeing me holding my first brief, and expressing a 
 hope it would be the precursor of many more. I had 
 no reason to suppose that he even knew me, and yet he 
 was prompt to recognize that a word from him would 
 be of inestimable value to me at that time as an en- 
 
 1 Oct. 25, 1866. 
 
388 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 couragement." l From the first, too, he determined 
 that his necessities should not be allowed to cheapen 
 his services. It is related that a well-known firm of 
 solicitors, whose favor might be most valuable to him, 
 sent in a batch of papers with a request for his 
 opinion, and a fee of five guineas. When their clerk 
 called for them a few days later he remarked that 
 there must be some mistake ; the tape had not even 
 been untied. " Not at all," said Mr. Benjamin, " the 
 fee proffered covered taking in the papers, but not ex 
 amining them." The u mistake " was remedied when 
 the clerk returned with an additional five and twenty 
 guineas. 1 
 
 In no way, however, can I give the reader a clearer 
 conception of the years of struggle for a livelihood, nor 
 of the gallant, tender heart that made the fight, than 
 by the letters he was writing to his family and friends 
 at this time. Since the more important happenings of 
 his daily life are all chronicled therein, we may once 
 again almost dispense with other narrative ; while into 
 their very texture, so that excision would likely re 
 move something vital, are woven the loving, playful, 
 half-boyish allusions to little incidents and doings 
 of the home circle in New Orleans of which he was an 
 actual member no more. The one from which I shall 
 now quote is to Mrs. Kruttschnitt, and dated, 4 Lamb 
 Buildings, Temple, llth April, 1867, after he had been 
 almost a year at the bar. The first page or two deal 
 with matters of family interest, how he has " fallen 
 desperately in love with your little blossom Alma, 
 whom I have never seen, but I can imagine from the 
 
 1 London Times, July 2, 1883. 2 Generation of Judges, p. 196. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 389 
 
 photograph what a darling cherub she must be " ; how 
 he must know all that each and every member of the 
 household is doing; how she must send him Mr. 
 Kruttschnitt's articles on microscopy, "for I like to 
 read everything, although I know little or nothing 
 about the microscope ; ... he would write noth 
 ing but the conscientious result of careful and accurate 
 observation. " 
 
 Then he turns to his own affairs : u I have been 
 spending the last month on circuit at Manchester and 
 Liverpool, and only got back this morning to cham 
 bers in the Temple. I give you at the head my address, 
 which will be unchanged now for a long time, as I 
 have taken a seven years' lease. . . . As I have 
 so little to do at the bar compared with my former pro 
 fessional life, I am turning author and have in prepara 
 tion a law work which will be ready for publication I 
 hope in November or December next, and will bring 
 me into more prominence with the profession and per 
 haps secure a more rapid advance in getting business. 
 As poor Kitt's article gave you the face-ache, I shall 
 not upset you entirely with my law book j but I sup 
 pose some copies of it will reach New Orleans, and you 
 can read the title-page and look at the outside without 
 much risk of serious injury. . . . 
 
 "I must now close, darling, and leave open for you 
 nay letter to Hatty for the rest of the news. Tell Alma 
 to mind not to get close to me. for I'll eat her up, and 
 then she can't squeeze my life out." 
 
 On June 5th he writes to Miss Harriet Benjamin four 
 full pages of his fine script that tell about the famous 
 Paris Exhibition of that year (he had but a two days' 
 glimpse of it), which we have not space to quote. It 
 
390 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 is only by an occasional allusion we learn from him 
 that he made good his promise to help, as always, in 
 the support of his sisters. ' 1 1 got the letter of Lionel 
 acknowledging the remittance," he says, and he con 
 tinues : 
 
 "I have been over to Paris, for two or three 
 days to see my family before their departure for 
 the south of France, where they will spend the sum 
 mer, and we will rent our apartments during the 
 Exhibition. . . . 
 
 " We have all been in great jubilee here at the news 
 of our poor President's release from his shameful cap 
 tivity. I have not yet had a letter from him but am 
 expecting one every day, as I am eager to learn how 
 he is, whether his health is improving, and whether 
 his constitution has been undermined by his sufferings. 
 
 " I am getting along tolerably well in my profession, 
 barely making my expenses, but I think I see that my 
 reputation is growing and that the future is brighten 
 ing. I work hard, but it is a happy life for me to be 
 absorbed in my studies and business, and to have no 
 harassing anxieties to disturb my labors. I am getting 
 too old to care now for anything except ease and tran 
 quillity, with means sufficient to live in comfort, but 
 without any desire for splendor, or show, or what are 
 called pleasures." 
 
 The pretense of complete absorption and the satis 
 faction of all cravings in hard work was, doubtless, for 
 the benefit of the home folk, whom it did not de 
 ceive. They knew that he was capable of hard work, 
 indeed, but that, as he himself confessed, he " loved to 
 bask in the sun like a lizard," being always by na 
 ture eminently sociable and fond of worldly pleasures. 
 After some brief excursions into aristocratic circles, 
 however, during the first six or eight months of his 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 391 
 
 stay in London, when he had the felicity of dining 
 with his political idol, Gladstone, and of meeting a 
 " crowd of titled and fashionable guests," whose " tone, 
 manners and customs I found just what I would have 
 expected, quiet, easy, courteous and agreeable " he 
 resolutely declined social attentions. i i I have no time 
 to yield to pleasures," he wrote home in the letter 1 
 from which I have quoted, ' l till I have secured some 
 lucrative business." General Taylor was rather put 
 out with him, says Mrs. Bradford, because he declined 
 the honor of meeting the Prince of Wales. 
 
 But though too busy to yield to pleasure for himself, 
 he yet had time to spare to give others pleasure. A 
 typical little passage from a letter of February 22, 1868, 
 shows the great lawyer busily engaged in hunting up 
 rare stamps for his small nieces and nephews in New 
 Orleans : " I searched in vain for some time/' he writes 
 with all the exuberant joy of the youngster who has 
 treasure trove, ... " but by a very lucky chance 
 my eye fell on the little advertisement that I enclose, 
 and I lost no time in going to the place, which I be 
 lieve is the only place in this great world of a city 
 where they could be found. So now they will get 
 Chinese, and Egyptian, and Turkish ! ! ! " 
 
 It is worth noting that, once the suggestion was made 
 to him that stamps would please the children, he seems 
 never to have forgotten it ; there are stamps of all kinds 
 sent in numerous letters for the next dozen years, till 
 the children at home, indeed, must have been far too 
 grown up to care about them, though they would not 
 hurt " Uncle Ben's" feelings by intimating as much. 
 In this same letter he continues : "I am looking forward 
 
 1 Dec. 20, 1865. 
 
392 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 to the day when restored peace to our unhappy South 
 will enable me to devote a long vacation to a full 
 month's visit to you all, and when I shall have nothing 
 to do but be petted and stuffed, and get no scoldings 
 unless my appetite fails." 
 
 He gives sage counsel about the boys, with quite as 
 much interest and affection as if they were his own, 
 how they "must be made to take an education, not be 
 allowed to fancy a profession or business yet, for boys 
 are really incapable of forming judgments of such 
 things, and only long to get into business in order to 
 seem grown up ; let it be a good education first ; if you 
 will, let them come to me ; after they are fitly educated, 
 then business or a profession, what you will." Here 
 he adds something of more personal bearing : 1 1 My 
 book is nearly finished, but the nearer I get to the end, 
 the more fastidious I become about correcting, amend 
 ing, and improving it. I do not think it will be out 
 before June ; but who told you that it had a jaw-break 
 ing name ? It is a simple Treatise on Sale under the 
 English law, which is very different from the law of 
 Louisiana, and the subject quite a difficult and trouble 
 some branch of professional learning here." 
 
 The book over which he was toiling, and from 
 which, not without good reason, he expected much in 
 creased reputation, was the famous "Treatise on the 
 Law of Sale of Personal Property, with Eeference to 
 the American Decisions, to the French Code and Civil 
 Law." It went through three editions before the au 
 thor's death, and became a classic on both sides of the 
 Atlantic as "Benjamin on Sale." The selection of 
 the subject in itself showed acuteness of judgment ; for 
 this extremely difficult question had not been ade- 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 393 
 
 quately discussed ; and in its treatment, involving, as 
 the preface explained, i l an attempt to develop the prin 
 ciples applicable to all branches of the subject," there 
 was wide scope not only for the accumulations of varied 
 learning and experience incident to such a life as Ben 
 jamin's had been, but for the display of that power of 
 comprehension, of logical and perspicuous develop 
 ment of first principles for which he was remarkable, 
 though the English public had yet seen but little of it in 
 him. It was this intellectual power, the clear percep 
 tion of essential rules in their practical application, that 
 won for the book its immediate popularity with the 
 legal profession, and, we may add, has preserved that 
 high standing. Soon after its publication, " Baron 
 Martin, when taking his seat one morning upon the 
 bench, asked to have Mr. Benjamin's work handed to 
 him. i Never heard of it, my Lord, ' was the answer of 
 the chief clerk. ' Never heard of it ! ' ejaculated Sir 
 Samuel Martin ; ' mind that I never take my seat here 
 again without that book by my side.' " ' 
 
 We shall see from the letters how grateful to the 
 author was the vogue of the work, and how it brought 
 him speedily more practice with increased reputation. 
 But the first one from which I shall quote has again 
 to do with family affairs : 2 u Tell darling little Alma 
 that uncle won't have her laughed at, and that she is 
 perfectly right in saying that the l Syringe came down 
 like a wolf on the fold,' and that when I come to play 
 with her on my lap, I'll just give the 'schlague* to 
 any one that makes her cry. I want her for my own 
 pet. ... I will not permit myself to doubt that I 
 
 1 London Daily Telegraph, Feb. 10, 1883. 
 
 2 June 21, 1869. 
 
394 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 shall have the chance of embracing you all next year." 
 But at the beginning of the next year, 1 in a long letter 
 in which he sent many messages to little Alma, and 
 rare stamps saved by his daughter Ninette for her 
 cousin Julius, and some accumulated American stamps 
 from his own correspondence to buy Alma ice-cream ; 
 in which he reviewed and commended the progress of 
 his nephews ; in which he hoped Mrs. Levy would be 
 consoled for her rheumatism by a little grandson, he 
 wrote : 
 
 11 1 long beyond measure to see you all once more, 
 but I am plainly to be disappointed this year. The 
 simple truth is that I cannot afford the visit. I had 
 anticipated from the growth of my reputation at the 
 bar here and from the assurances of those who ought 
 to know, that I would already have been in the receipt 
 of an income sufficient for support at all events. But 
 the growth of business here is so very slow, and the 
 competition so severe, that the attorneys give their 
 briefs, whenever they possibly can, to barristers who 
 are connected or related in some way with them or 
 their families ; and in an old country like England 
 these family ties are so ramified that there is hardly an 
 attorney who has not in some way a barrister whom it 
 is his interest to engage. I therefore have but little 
 chance for a brief whenever it can be given else 
 where, and this accounts for the difficulty under which 
 any one in the world must labor, if not connected in 
 some way with the attorneys and their families. I can 
 not get along with less than 1,400, say about $7,000 
 a year, including my professional expenses at the 
 Temple for rent, clerk hire, bar-mess, robing-room, 
 wigs and gowns, etc., etc., which are endless. I had 
 hoped strongly that by this year at furthest I should be 
 able to make both ends meet, but I have not yet 
 
 1 Feb. 8, 1870. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 395 
 
 reached that point, though I see a more decided in 
 crease in my receipts than I have hitherto perceived. 
 If I had not written my book, I should be ' nowhere ' 
 in the race, but that has done me an immensity of 
 good, and will give me further fruits of business and rep 
 utation, though I barely clear the costs of publication 
 and make no money out of it. I think from the pres 
 ent aspect of things that I shall nearly succeed in not 
 getting behindhand this year, and if so, niy subsequent 
 career will become more rapidly prosperous, if I pre 
 serve my health, which is excellent, quite as good as 
 ever. I am now Queen's Counsel for the County of 
 Lancashire only, which is very important as far as 
 Liverpool business is concerned, but I hope within 
 twelve months to have the same promotion for all Eng 
 land, so that my London business will be much more 
 profitable, and I shall then feel perfectly easy in my 
 mind as to pecuniary matters. I write these things 
 for no one but the family, but I can keep no secrets from 
 you all, knowing how much you will be interested in all 
 that concerns me. 77 
 
 The same hopeful tone distinguishes his reference to 
 himself in a long letter to Mr. Mason, * from which we 
 may quote. The greater portion of it is taken up with 
 news of and inquiries for his old associates of the Con 
 federacy, and with a reply to a request from Colonel 
 Charles Marshall, of General Lee's staff, for certain 
 data ; I omit all but the passages of special signifi 
 cance : 
 
 " I am doing here in London not only as well but 
 even better than I dared to hope, and am now at last 
 in receipt of an income sufficient for my family, with a 
 fair prospect of again laying up a little store for them 
 when I am no longer able to work, in the place of what 
 
 1 Feb. 8, 1871. 
 
396 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 our Northern friends confiscated for me. I have, how 
 ever, worked very hard, and have been closely strait 
 ened for means while striving to attain my present 
 position. Now as regards the other part of your letter. 
 Please say to Colonel Marshall that I perfectly remem 
 ber our acquaintance during the war, and that I deem 
 him entitled in every respect and on every ground to 
 apply to me for information, or for any other service I 
 can render him ; and above all for any aid that I can 
 afford in the pious labor he has undertaken. Upon 
 some points I can give him information, but upon 
 others my memory is a blank, as to order of dates and 
 such like details. I have hardly anything to which I can 
 refer to refresh my memory, but I have the original re 
 port made by the Commissioners who went to Hamp 
 ton Eoads, and a bound copy of the President's Mes 
 sages to Congress, which you (who were in our secrets) 
 know to have been written by me, as the President was 
 too pressed with other duties to command sufficient 
 time for preparing them himself." 
 
 Keturning to more personal matters, we find that in 
 the course of the same year in which he wrote thus to 
 Mr. Mason, he was able to give an even better report 
 of his financial condition to his own family. 1 But 
 coupled with this is the first mention of ill health. He 
 had been singularly free from even trifling bodily ail 
 ments all his life, though now he says : 
 
 1 1 After getting through my work on circuit I left 
 for Paris on the 23d August, and have had a good 
 long vacation of over seven weeks, and am now back 
 to hard work. A good part of my vacation, however, 
 was spoiled by an attack of neuralgic or rheumatic 
 pains in the side and back which kept me in nearly 
 constant pain for several weeks ; but, fortunately, by 
 the aid of hot sulphurous baths, I got rid of the attack 
 
 1 Oct. 15, 1871, 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 397 
 
 and have been free from it now for three weeks, so 
 that I hope there will be no relapse. Singularly 
 enough, Natalie had been suffering from a similar at 
 tack, only much more, for several months. She was 
 in bed for two months unable to use the knee joints at 
 all, but she also has recovered, from the same treat 
 ment, and when I left them at the beginning of the 
 week, the whole family were in excellent health and 
 spirits. . . . 
 
 " I am happy to tell you, my darlings, that although 
 my success at the bar is absurdly exaggerated in some 
 accounts that I have seen in the newspapers, I have 
 really l turned the corner ' at last, and that my re 
 ceipts for the last twelve months have exceeded ten 
 thousand dollars, so that I have been able to lay up 
 something after paying expenses. It is now probable 
 that there will be a substantial increase for the future, 
 and that if my health lasts, I shall in four or five years 
 feel that I am 'safe, 7 and that in the event of my 
 death a comfortable subsistence will be secure for my 
 family. I think my reputation at the bar is increas 
 ing and I can see that my circle of clients is daily 
 widening." 
 
 A little later he writes to Miss Benjamin : l 
 
 u I am sadly in arrears with my correspondence with 
 you all, and I know that my dearest Penny has good 
 reason to scold, but I have really for some time past 
 been under high pressure of work, and I avoid as much 
 as possible using my eyes by gaslight. I don't mean 
 to say that there is anything the matter with them, 
 but I have so much writing to do, that they get fa 
 tigued before I finish niy day's work, and then it is not 
 a pleasure to continue writing. . . . 
 
 " I have been in Paris for two or three days since I 
 last wrote you. I ought to have had the whole of 
 Christmas week for my holiday, but a client got hold 
 
 1 Feb. 21, 1872. 
 
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 of me and gave me one hundred guineas for three days 
 of my time, and I could not afford the luxury of a hol 
 iday at that rate, so I was cheated out of half my 
 week. 
 
 ' ' Pen says that she will celebrate her silver wedding 
 and Ernest's majority next year, and if I dared look 
 forward so far, it would rejoice me beyond measure to 
 be of the party. But while the political excitement 
 lasts, and while the Senate rejects amnesty bills, and 
 the South is kept crushed under negro rule, it sickens 
 me to think of the condition of things. After the 
 Presidential election it may be that the general am 
 nesty bill will pass ; but it is a wonder to me that so 
 much bitterness against the conquered can endure 
 after the lapse of seven or eight years. 7 ' 
 
 The longed-for amelioration in the pitiable condition 
 of Louisiana did not come so soon, nor was he suffi 
 ciently secure of his position at the bar to take the va 
 cation and go to New Orleans in the summer of 1872 ; 
 but a letter of August 10th gives the most cheering 
 news he had yet sent home : 
 
 "I have had high professional promotion lately. A 
 number of the judges united in recommending to the 
 Lord Chancellor that I should have a ' patent of pre 
 cedence,' which gives me rank above all future Queen's 
 Counsel and above all Sergeants at Law (except two or 
 three who already have such patents), and Her Majesty 
 upon the transmission of this recommendation by the 
 Lord Chancellor, who endorsed it, was pleased to issue 
 her warrant directing that such a patent should be 
 granted to me. 
 
 ' ' I received it in person from the Lord Chancellor 
 at his own house, and he gave it to me with some very 
 flattering expressions. I need hardly say that as the 
 law journals and the Times have contained some ar 
 ticles on the subject it will be of immense value to me 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 399 
 
 in my profession in various ways, both in increased in 
 come and in greater facility of labor ; for you must 
 know that a ' leader ' who has a patent of precedence 
 has not half as hard work as a 'junior, 7 because it is 
 the business of the junior to do all the work connected 
 with the pleadings and preparation of a cause, and the 
 leader does nothing but argue and try the causes after 
 they have been completely prepared for him. 
 
 " As the ladies always want to know all details of 
 ceremonies, I will say for the gratification of the fem 
 inine mind that my patent of precedence is engrossed 
 on parchment, and to it is annexed the great seal, 
 which is an enormous lump of wax as large and thick 
 as a muffin, enclosed in a tin box, and the whole to 
 gether contained in a red morocco box highly orna 
 mented. As nothing of this kind is ever done under a 
 monarchy without an endless series of charges, etc., it 
 cost me about 80, or $400, to pay for stamps, fees, 
 presents to servitors, etc., etc. Now for the reverse 
 side of the medal. 
 
 1 ' I have now to wear a full bottomed wig, with 
 wings falling down on my shoulders, and knee breeches 
 and black silk stockings and shoes with buckles, and 
 in this ridiculous array, in my silk gown, to present 
 myself at the next levee of Her Majesty to return 
 thanks for her gracious kindness. In the same dress I 
 am also to be present at the grand breakfast which the 
 Lord Chancellor gives to Her Majesty's Judges and to 
 the leaders of the bar every year in October (at the end 
 of the month), when the Michaelmas Term begins. 
 Fortunately, I have three months for bracing up my 
 nerves to the trial of making myself such an object, 
 and as it is usual to have photographs made of one's 
 self on these occasions I will send some to enable you 
 all to laugh at i how like a monkey brother looks in 
 that hideous wig.' 
 
 " Before I forget it, I must just mention that I don't 
 want anything of this sort that I write for the family 
 to get into the papers, for if it were repeated here, it 
 
400 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 would be known that such details must have originated 
 with me, and I should be suspected, to my great mor 
 tification, of writing puffs of myself, than which noth 
 ing is deservedly regarded with more contempt. Of 
 course, the fact of my promotion being announced 
 could do no harm, but none of the details which can 
 come only from me must get into the papers." 
 
 Much encouraged by this signal manifestation of the 
 estimate placed upon him in his new home there were, 
 of course, congratulatory letters, and flattering articles 
 in the press and law reviews Mr. Benjamin went to 
 work with renewed zest. It was said that he owed his 
 success to the argument in the case of Potter vs. Eankin, 
 in the House of Lords, when Lord Hatherly was so im 
 pressed with his ability that he at once ordered the 
 patent made out. Certainly, it became before many 
 more years almost a matter of course that in every im 
 portant case taken to the Courts of Appeal, Privy 
 Council or House of Lords, Mr. Benjamin, Q. C., should 
 be retained as counsel. 
 
 Curiously enough, "the doctors disagree" in their 
 diagnosis, if we may so call it, of his peculiar tal 
 ents as a lawyer. Several, including the writer of the 
 excellent sketch in the Times of May 9, 1884, concur that 
 Mr. Benjamin was not markedly successful before a 
 jury. Since our account of the purely legal part of 
 his life is designedly condensed, let us here disregard 
 chronology to give such of the facts about technical or 
 professional matters as may be presumed to interest the 
 lay reader. The character of Mr. Benjamin's practice 
 in America, as has been repeatedly stated, was princi 
 pally civil, not criminal, involving especially points 
 of commercial law. In England it would be natural to 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 401 
 
 expect him to follow the same bent, even if we did not 
 recall that he expected, and did get, much of his earlier 
 business through Liverpool merchants. The writer in 
 the Times states and I quote him as giving a fair sum 
 mary from one who was a contemporary : 
 
 1 i When he first settled in London he practiced in all 
 the courts, and made many masterly addresses to juries ; 
 but in the very peculiar and difficult art of examining 
 and cross-examining witnesses and managing a case at 
 Nisi Prius, he did not shine. This requires a special 
 experience of the peculiar class of jurymen who are to 
 be influenced. . . . But in arguments before the 
 court which depended on the scientific treatment of 
 legal questions Mr. Benj amin's superiority became 
 early established. After a few years he confined him 
 self to these. Auson vs. the Northwestern Railway 
 was his last case at Nisi Prius. Thenceforward he re 
 stricted himself to the Court in Bane or Courts of Ap 
 peal, but was likewise often taken into Chancery to 
 argue before an Equity Judge. Still later, feeling the 
 absolute necessity of restricting his exertions, Mr. Ben 
 jamin refused to go into any court other than the House 
 of Lords and the Privy Council except for a fee of 100 
 guineas, and a client having demanded a consultation 
 at his own house, the fee of 300 guineas was fixed. The 
 Privy Council was, perhaps, his favorite tribunal ; his 
 wide acquaintance with foreign systems of law quali 
 fied him in an eminent degree to deal with the cases 
 from the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain 
 which come before the Judicial Committee in Downing 
 Street. His great faculty was that of argumentative 
 statement. He would so put his case, without in the 
 least departing from candor, that it seemed impossible 
 
402 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN" 
 
 to give judgment except in one way. It must be con 
 fessed that this was a dangerous power, and sometimes 
 imposed on himself. His l opinions ' were, in conse 
 quence, sometimes unduly sanguine or at least seemed 
 so in cases which he had not the opportunity of argu 
 ing himself. When he did argue he often justified by 
 his advocacy advice which had seemed the hardiest. 
 The Franconia was perhaps the best-known of his 
 cases. It dealt, to some extent, with international law, 
 in which, having been not only a lawyer but a states 
 man, he was at home ; but it was a criminal case, and 
 so of a class with which he was not usually concerned. 
 More characteristic examples will be revealed by a 
 glance at the columns of the Times between 1872 and 
 1883, or by dipping into the pages of the i Appeal 
 Cases. ' Here we find him arguing questions about bills 
 of exchange, a husband's liability for his wife's debts 
 (Debenham vs. Mellon), the duties of the charterer of 
 a ship, the explicit rights of the Caledonian and North 
 British Eailways under their acts, the reopening of 
 accounts closed in New Zealand nine years before, the 
 perjury of Thomas Castro, otherwise Arthur Orton, 
 otherwise Sir Eoger Tichborne, etc." 
 
 Eegarding his non-success, comparative, of course 
 as a jury lawyer, other English observers concur 
 with the Times. Some note that his accent was 
 decidedly American, and his voice not pleasant, a 
 view we must believe mistaken considering the unani 
 mous testimony to its beautiful timbre before he crossed 
 the Atlantic, though it is fair to note that Mrs. Davis 
 remarks, l u When I saw him in England much of the 
 
 1 As elsewhere, from private letters to the author, and in Law- 
 ley MS. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 403 
 
 well-remembered music of his voice had fallen silent. " 
 Others, however, commented on his wonderful power 
 of exposition, of presenting facts : " He makes you see 
 the very bale of cotton that he is describing as it lies 
 upon the wharf at New Orleans." l And Baron Pol 
 lock gives several anecdotes, too long to quote, to il 
 lustrate his skill in handling witnesses, remarking, in 
 direct contradiction of the opinions offered above : 
 " Although not eloquent as a speaker, he always 
 showed a great experience in the conduct of a Nisi 
 Prius issue, and thoroughly knew the rules of the game ; 
 clear in the statement of facts, an effective cross- exam 
 iner, and cautious in the extreme of expressing any 
 false or figurative surroundings, he presented his client's 
 case with great force to a jury. ' > 2 On the whole, there 
 fore, it would seem that the predilection for courts which 
 tried without juries, and his unquestioned mastery of 
 that sort of pleading, misled those who thought that he 
 was not, or would not have been, so successful in hand 
 ling juries. 
 
 In conclusion, Lord James of Hereford comments 
 upon Mr. Benjamin's "mode and method of argument 
 [as] peculiar and strange to " the English Judges when 
 he first came. " His habit was to commence his argu 
 ments with an abstract lecture upon the law affecting 
 the case before the court. Most elementary principles 
 would be very minutely explained. If the court dif 
 fered from or doubted any of his propositions, the 
 tribunal was informed that they certainly were wrong, 
 and that it was desirable they should have the state of 
 the law more fully explained to them." Sir Henry 
 
 1 Daily Telegraph, February 10, 1883. 
 
 2 Green Bag, Sept., 1898, p. 400. 
 
404 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 James, as he then was, took occasion in private to call 
 Mr. Benjamin's attention to a fault that might work 
 him harm : " Eight well he accepted all I had to say, 
 and agreed that he had not yet fallen into our ways." * 
 His custom, noted even while he was practicing in 
 New Orleans, of beginning his arguments by a bold 
 statement of the propositions he intended to maintain, 
 which sometimes needed all of his subtlety of logic 
 in order to seem reasonable at all, was indirectly 
 responsible for one little episode that made a deep im 
 pression in England. It was in the case of the London 
 and County Bank vs. Eatcliffe, which Mr. Eussell Eob- 
 erts, one of the junior counsel, declares to have been 
 exceedingly puzzling in its facts, that Mr. Benjamin 
 had his difficulty, May 19, 1881. As senior counsel for 
 the appellants in the House of Lords, Mr. Benjamin 
 insisted on proceeding with his argument as he had 
 planned it, in spite of signs of impatience on the part 
 of the members. At length, upon his stating one of the 
 propositions that he meant to defend, Lord Selborne, 
 the Lord Chancellor, remarked sotto voce, but in a tone 
 that reached the counselor's ear: u Nonsense!" 
 Changing color slightly, says Mr. Eoberts, from whom 
 I take these facts, 2 Mr. Benjamin " proceeded to tie up 
 his papers. This accomplished, he bowed gravely to 
 the members of the House, and saying, i That is my 
 case, my Lords, 7 he turned and left the House." The 
 junior counsel was therefore compelled to go on as 
 best he might. "On the following day the respond 
 ent's counsel were heard, and a reply being called for, 
 Mr. Horace Davey, Q. C., on the 23d day of May, rose 
 to address the House, Mr. Benjamin being absent. On 
 1 Lawley MS. * Lawley MS. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 405 
 
 Mr. Davey 7 s rising, the Lord Chancellor said, 'Mr. 
 Davey, it is unusual for the House to hear three coun 
 sel for the same party, and we have already heard Mr. 
 Benjamin and Mr. Eussell Roberts. I notice Mr. Ben 
 jamin 7 s absence, however, and I fear that it may be 
 attributable to his having taken umbrage at an unfor 
 tunate remark which fell from me during his argument, 
 and in which I referred to a proposition he stated as 
 4 nonsense. 7 I certainly was not justified in applying 
 such a term to anything that fell from Mr. Benjamin, 
 and I wish you to convey to him my regret that I 
 should have used such an expression. 7 . . . Mr. 
 Davey conveyed to Mr. Benjamin what had been said 
 by Lord Selborne, and induced him to write a note to 
 Lord Selborne acknowledging the apology. 77 
 
 This little incident has echoed in nearly every one of 
 the English reminiscences of Mr. Benjamin. The 
 prompt and unhesitating resentment of an affront to his 
 dignity (all the more unwarranted in view of his own 
 unvarying courtesy) even from the Woolsack made a 
 strong impression, and increased respect for him. It 
 is no doubt fortunate that the occasion for this action on 
 his part arose late in his career, when he was firmly 
 established in the front rank, perhaps at the head of 
 the bar ; for if it had come earlier, he would assuredly 
 have acted in the same way ("he was like fire and 
 tow, 77 says Mrs. Davis, "and sensitive about his 
 dignity 77 ), and then popular approval might not have 
 been so certainly on his side. 
 
 Having thus run ahead of the man in surveying the 
 course of the lawyer, let us hark back to some of the 
 details of his life during these years. On August 9, 
 1874, he wrote to Mrs. Kruttschnitt : 
 
406 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 ' ' As soon as the assizes are finished, say about 26th 
 to 28th of this month, I leave at once for Paris for the 
 marriage of Ninette, which will take place early next 
 month. Of course I cannot but feel anxious at thus 
 giving up my only child, but, as far as human fore 
 sight can predict, I have assurance that the match will 
 prove happy. Captain de Bousignac, her intended, is 
 represented on all sides as one of the most promising 
 officers of the French army. At the age of thirty-two 
 he has acquired a distinguished position on the general 
 staff from his merits both as an artillery and engineer 
 officer ; he is of excellent family, irreproachable habits, 
 beloved by all around him for his frank, gay and 
 amiable character, and I know no better test of a man 
 than his possession of the affection of those most 
 intimate with him. . . . He is stationed at Ver 
 sailles in the war department, only half an hour from 
 Paris, and as long as he remains there, the new couple 
 will live with us. ... By giving up all my 
 savings I have been able to settle on Ninette three 
 thousand dollars a year, so that her future is now 
 secure against want, and I must now begin to lay up a 
 provision for the old age of my wife and self. I under 
 take this new task with courage, because we shall not 
 require a great deal, and the practice of my profession 
 is now so much more lucrative than it ever was before, 
 that I hope in two or three years to see the end of 
 necessary labor, and to be able to work as little or as 
 much as I please. " 
 
 In the next letter, October 24th, he gives a full ac 
 count, almost feminine in its attention to detail (though 
 he declines even the attempt at describing the toilettes), 
 of the wedding, which took place on September 7th. 
 The bride spent most of that winter with her mother, 
 Captain de Bousignac coming to and from Orleans, 
 whither he had been transferred ; in the spring they 
 opened apartments of their own in that place. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 407 
 
 That Benjamin set to work with a will to add to his 
 savings, and that in doing so he did not forget to con 
 tinue his generosity to all who had any claim on him, 
 may be seen from a letter of March 17, 1875, in which 
 he sends a present of one thousand dollars for one of his 
 nieces about to be married, and says of himself : " I 
 have just finished the trial of a cause which lasted 
 eight days, and on Sunday I was at my desk from 
 breakfast till two hours past midnight, with only an 
 interval of half an hour for taking some light food, as 
 one cannot dine when so deeply absorbed.' 7 In the 
 same letter he records his satisfaction with his daughter's 
 match ; " her husband is all that I could desire." And 
 it may be added that the years did not diminish his 
 gratification. He recurs once more to the hope of 
 coming to America : ' i You say, my dearest, that I 
 never now speak of visiting you all. I never can consent 
 to go to New Orleans and break my heart with witness 
 ing the rule of negroes and carpet-baggers. I have 
 hoped year by year that some change would be effected 
 which would place decent and respectable men at the 
 head of the administration of affairs, and it seems to 
 me that the time is now fast approaching. I long and 
 yearn to press you all to my heart once more, and for 
 some of us at least age is creeping on and not much 
 time is to be lost." 
 
 "I don't know what you mean," he writes to Miss 
 Benjamin some months later (June 6th), " by saying 
 you suppose that I am having a little holiday. I am 
 scarcely able to get to dinner before nine or ten o'clock 
 at night once a week, and generally my whole Sunday 
 is also occupied." And in the next sentence, as if 
 apologizing for this complaint of his hard work, he 
 
408 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 goes on : " But I am in depressed spirits on account of 
 the condition of poor Jules," his brother-in-law, who 
 was wasting away with the same disease that ultimately 
 caused Mr. Benjamin's death. Her brother's distress 
 ing state greatly affected Mrs. Benjamin, with whom he 
 lived, and who had no other companion now that her 
 daughter had gone. 
 
 Many a page might be filled with the little things 
 from these home letters, but I must give only gleanings 
 here and there. He constantly refers to his profes 
 sional progress with a pardonable pride in the successes 
 achieved, and yet modestly withal. For example: 1 
 "I have been acquiring a good deal of reputation 
 lately in a great cause that I had to argue before four 
 teen judges, presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of 
 England, in behalf of the captain of a German ship, the 
 Franconia. As it involved a question of international 
 law, the papers were full of it, and I received many 
 compliments." Early in 1877 (March 18th) he an 
 nounces that he does not have it so hard now : 
 "I very seldom have to work after seven in the 
 evening, and from ten in the morning to seven in the 
 evening is no excess of labor " ! Two years later, 2 he 
 announces that he has cut off a large part of his prac 
 tice in the lower courts, " confining myself chiefly to 
 the House of Lords and other Appeal Courts. . . . 
 I am beginning again to go into society, which I had 
 relinquished for years, and to accept invitations to 
 dinner which I had habitually declined. I am all the 
 better for it." During this year he was building his 
 house, at No. 41 Avenue d'Jena, Paris, and writes 
 amusing letters about his difficulties in getting things 
 
 1 July 16, 1876. 9 March 23, 1879. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 409 
 
 done. "I was maliciously pleased," he writes 1 to 
 Mrs. Kruttschnitt, " with your account of your tribu 
 lations with the workmen in your house, as I have 
 gone through the same trouble for weeks, and left Paris 
 with everything in dire confusion. . . . The Paris 
 workmen of all classes began l strikes,' and first the 
 joiners, next the plumbers, next the gas-fitters, next 
 the 'fumistes,' or fireplace and stove workers, next 
 the plasterers, etc. , etc. , refused to do any work, while 
 my contractors were in utter despair, unable to advance 
 a step." By desperate exertions, they managed to get 
 into the bedrooms, leaving the rest to be completed, 
 with the attendant confusion and discomfort: "We 
 all came to the conclusion that no violence of language 
 or feeling could do justice to the occasion, so we 
 finished by laughing at each other 7 s doleful faces and 
 went on in the best way we could. . . . We shall be 
 housed like princes, but the cost will be greater than I 
 supposed, and including the additional furniture, etc., 
 etc., I don't get off for less than $80,000. However, 
 all is now paid for." 
 
 Benjamin took special pride in this comfortable 
 mansion, the first that he could really call a home of his 
 own, since the happy days of " Bellechasse " ; and as 
 the years wore on he chafed more and more under the 
 strain of his practice, began to yield to the weight of 
 age, and longed with increasing ardor for absolute 
 retirement from the great world. He writes, just be 
 fore the Easter holidays in 1880 : tl I have felt work 
 more this winter than ever before, and in addition to 
 advancing age, which of course must tell on me, I at 
 tribute much to the dreadful weather which we had 
 
 1 Nov. 6, 1879. 
 
410 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 early in the season and which carried off very many 
 persons advanced in life. . . . We are in the 
 midst of the turmoil of a general election here, and it 
 amuses me to look on, as I do not take the slightest 
 part in politics and shall never again be induced to 
 emerge from the quietude of private life. Half my 
 brethren of the bar are candidates, and great efforts 
 have been made to induce me to become a candidate, 
 but I laugh them off, and both sides claim me, because 
 I belong to neither." 
 
 It was very shortly after this that, while on a brief 
 visit to Paris in May, he met with an accident 
 from which he never fully recovered. Though some 
 times, in moments of depression, feeling his age, he 
 was still far from seeming a man on the verge of 
 seventy, and usually moved with a step as elastic as if 
 he were yet in his prime. He tells very briefly what 
 happened, in a letter to Mr. Bayard, written when the 
 more serious consequences were just making themselves 
 manifest : l 
 
 " I now feel able to answer your welcome and affec 
 tionate letter of 28th March. I have been very ill, but 
 am now greatly improved, though I am told I must not 
 hope for complete recovery. ... In May, 1880, I 
 was thrown to the ground with great violence in a fool 
 ish attempt to jump off a tram-car in rapid motion. 
 My right arm was torn from the socket, the shoulder 
 blade broken, and the left side of the forehead fractured ; 
 indeed, but for my hat, which fortunately remained on 
 my head and acted as a buffer, I must have been 
 killed." 
 
 In fact, he had stepped off the swiftly moving tram 
 as he had been in the habit of doing thirty years before 
 
 i Aug. 2, 1883. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 411 
 
 in New Orleans ; the thirty years made some differ 
 ence, however, and furthermore, losing his presence of 
 mind when he first stumbled, he held on to the hand 
 rail of the car, and was dragged a considerable dis 
 tance. As he wrote to Mr. Bayard, his recovery from 
 the initial effects of the accident was surprisingly 
 rapid. He was hard at work again in London the 
 following winter, and his physician promised him a 
 cure, though not immediate. He wrote cheerfully of 
 the regime prescribed : "I am made to take a liqueur 
 glass of cognac pure three times a day, to take a prep 
 aration of iron at each meal, to drink my claret with 
 out water, and altogether to accustom myself to getting 
 a little t tight ' every day. I shall soon be an accom 
 plished 'tippler,' and then my 'cure' will be com 
 plete." ' 
 
 Indeed, for a time it seemed so ; for after a success 
 ful year, he spent a i i very pleasant summer vacation, 
 [1881] three weeks at Bagneres-de-Luchon, a most 
 charming watering place in the Pyrenees, and a month 
 at Biarritz, a beautiful seashore resort. I had the 
 pleasure of having my dear child with me the whole 
 time, and her husband, after a flying visit of one day 
 at Luchon, got leave of absence and spent a fortnight 
 with us at Biarritz." Moreover, on a little trip to 
 some friends near Toulouse, there were dinner parties 
 almost every day, ' l followed by extempore music and 
 dancing in the evening, and this t old man ? was made 
 to dance by invitations from the young ladies, who re 
 fused to dance at all if he would not. What do you 
 say to that ? " 2 Of his profession he wrote :* "I still 
 
 1 Oct. 24, 1880. 2 To Miss Benjamin, Nov. 4, 1881. 
 
 8 Nov. 27, 1881. 
 
412 JTJDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 keep up my old jog-trot, but my work is less absorb 
 ing. I have cut off a good deal of my practice pre 
 paratory to withdrawing, but my withdrawal now de 
 pends entirely on our success in getting Ninette and 
 her husband back to live with us, as I should hardly 
 know what to do with myself in the ' big house ' all 
 alone with my poor wife, who is constantly fretting for 
 her daughter when the latter joins her husband." In 
 spite of efforts, which we may well believe to have 
 been quietly courageous, to shake off his infirmities, 
 they increased alarmingly in the course of the next 
 year. His heart became seriously involved, and he 
 was in such a state that he could hardly walk. He 
 went over to spend the Christmas vacation as usual 
 with his family, and in his own words let us tell of 
 the close of a career unique, so far as I know, in 
 history : 
 
 "41 Avenue d'Jena, Paris, 12 February, 1883. 
 "MY DARLING PENNY : 
 
 1 ' You will see by the above heading, that I am 
 still here and this will be my address in future, for I 
 have left the bar and shall practice no more. 
 
 " For the last few months, new and strange symptoms 
 developed themselves in my condition. I was troubled 
 with an oppression in breathing and palpitation of the 
 heart ; my feet became swollen and remained so : my 
 legs were so weak that they could scarcely sustain my 
 body, and Natalie insisted on a consultation of the 
 most eminent physicians of Paris, which took place 
 just a week ago. After a close and careful examina 
 tion of all the vital organs, and auscultation by the 
 most experienced, it was discovered that the diabetic 
 affection had injured the heart, which had become en 
 larged, and the great valve of the aorta had ceased to 
 act efficiently so as to expel as it should do, the blood 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 413 
 
 which had passed through the heart. In this state of 
 things they advised an energetic course of treatment 
 which I am now undergoing, but they specially insisted 
 on complete repose, and declared that the fatigue and ex 
 citement of arguing causes were particularly prejudi 
 cial and must be discontinued. 
 
 "I had of course no alternative, but directed my 
 clerk to announce my retirement, to return all my briefs 
 to my clients, and to repay all fees received in matters 
 which I am unable to finish. 
 
 " I cannot tell you how greatly I have been surprised 
 and how deeply I have been moved by the effect of this 
 announcement. Every leading London newspaper, 1 
 with the Times at the head, has made my retirement a 
 matter of national concern and regret, and my table is 
 covered with piles of letters (some sixty or seventy at 
 least) from my brethren of the bar, expressing the 
 warmest sympathy and regret, and hopes of my re 
 covery, and assurances of warm friendship, etc., etc. 
 For the last few clays I have hardly kept my eyes free 
 from tears on reading these testimonials to the recti 
 tude and honor of my professional conduct, such as no 
 member of the English bar has ever received. . . . 
 
 " If my treatment is at all successful as the doctors 
 anticipate, I shall go to London for a week or two in 
 about a month to close up all my business, get rid of 
 the lease of my lodgings and chambers in the Temple, 
 sell my furniture and law library, etc. , and return here 
 free from all preoccupation that can cause care, or 
 fatigue, or excitement ; and having nothing to do ex 
 cept to assume my new character of i an invalid old 
 gentleman' taking care of his health. 77 
 
 The expression of sympathy on the part of his 
 fellow-barristers was later to take a form yet more re 
 markable. In a letter to Miss Benjamin, of March 1st, 
 he writes: "I have just received a signal honor 
 
 1 The best is the sketch in the Daily Telegraph, Feb. 10, 1883. 
 
414 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 from the English bar. A letter from the Attorney- 
 General informs me that he has received a requisition 
 signed by more than eighty Queen's Counsel, and by 
 all the leading members of the bar of England, desir 
 ing him to offer me a public dinner in order to take a 
 1 collective farewell ' of me and to testify their high 
 sense of the honor and integrity of my professional 
 career, and of their desire that our relations of personal 
 friendship should not be severed. The correspondence 
 will be made public. This is theirs/ time that such 
 an honor has been extended to a barrister on leaving 
 the profession." 
 
 As he had planned, he went back to London in the 
 spring and closed his offices. Pees to a large amount 
 for unsettled causes were returned to the clients, and 
 business affairs were put in order with that perfect at 
 tention to detail which had helped so much to make his 
 fame. But no temptation could possibly induce him 
 to practice again, though it is said a fee of two 
 thousand guineas was offered him. The formal an 
 nouncement of his retirement, made on February 9th, 
 was treated as final. There only remained the more 
 personal farewell to the members of the bar at the din 
 ner given in his honor. 
 
 The great banquet 1 took place in the hall of the 
 Inner Temple, on Saturday evening, June 30, 1883, 
 with Sir Henry James, the Attorney-General, in the 
 chair ; Lord Selborne, the Lord Chancellor, on his left ; 
 and Mr. Benjamin on his right. There were present 
 all that England ranked highest in the legal profession, 
 including such names as that of Lord Coleridge, the 
 Lord Chief Justice, who had wanted Benjamin on the 
 
 1 See London Times, July 2, 1883. 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 415 
 
 bench ; the Master of the Rolls, Sir. W. B. Brett, who 
 had seen him begin his career in English courts and 
 now came to do honor to the culmination of that 
 career. There were the Justices of all the high courts, 
 and a list of titles such as Englishmen are always 
 pleased to see in social Theban phalanx, but which 
 mean less to us than the "more than two hundred 
 members of the bar, 7 ' without distinction of party, 
 both the old who had perhaps been distanced in the 
 race by this wonderful little Jew from America, and 
 the young to whom his name was a shibboleth of bril 
 liant success. Many a rival must have been overcome 
 in the course of Mr. Benjamin's rise before the English 
 courts ; yet not one manifested any ill feeling. It is 
 testimony eloquent on two points the generosity of 
 the British lawyer, and the scrupulous regard for the 
 rights of his opponents which had always marked the 
 man they had met to honor. 
 
 The toasts, not the viands, were of course the pieces 
 de resistance of the dinner ; but in this place I shall 
 note only his own response. It was brief, and marked 
 by fastidious simplicity of diction, a characteristic ex 
 ample of his manner when deeply moved ; and as his 
 sweet voice recited the simple and sincere story of his 
 illness, of his gratitude to the generous bar of England, 
 and of his regret at feeling that he should meet most 
 of them no more, the great throng of gentlemen 
 listened with rapt attention and manifest sympathy. 
 I shall quote but a fragment of what he had to say : 
 "The feelings of joy and gratification [at this testi 
 monial] are counterbalanced more than counter 
 balanced by the reflection, unutterably sad, that to 
 the large majority of those present my farewell words 
 
416 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 to-night are a final earthly farewell that to the large 
 majority of you I shall never again be cheered by the 
 smiling welcome, by the hearty hand-grasp, with 
 which I have been greeted during many years, and 
 which had become to me almost the very breath of my 
 life. It was on the 16th of December, 1832, that I was 
 first called to the bar ; and on the 7th of December 
 last I had accomplished fifty years of professional life." 
 
 After recounting the causes of his retirement, and do 
 ing homage to those who had made possible his success 
 he gratefully concludes: "From the bar of England 
 I never, so far as I am aware, received anything but 
 warm and kindly welcome. I never had occasion to 
 feel that any one regarded me as an intruder. I never 
 felt a touch of professional jealousy. I never received 
 any unkindness. On the contrary, from all quarters I 
 received a warm and cordial welcome to which, as a 
 stranger, I had no title, except that I was a political 
 exile, seeking by honorable labor to retrieve shattered 
 fortunes, wrecked in the ruin of a lost cause. . . . 
 I must conclude by thanking you all from the bottom 
 of my heart for the kind reception you have given me 
 ever since I first came among you down to this mag 
 nificent testimonial, the recollection of which will 
 never fade from my memory, and on which I shall al 
 ways love to dwell. I thank you all." 
 
 Little remains to be told ; he was not spared to en 
 joy even a full year of that home-life for which he 
 had so long yearned and in procuring which he had 
 performed what must always seem prodigious labors. 
 The summer he spent chiefly at Le Mans, where 
 Captain de Bousignac was stationed j and here he ap 
 peared to improve so much that his family were hope- 
 
A NEW HOME AND NEW FAME 417 
 
 ful of many more years for him. It is hard to say 
 what he felt himself ; for he was resolutely cheerful al 
 ways, took the brightest view of things, and wrote home 
 the most reassuring letters. Yet there is a touch of 
 melancholy here and there that shows he could not 
 really have cherished many false hopes. The winter 
 was a hard one, and in addition to the depressing effect 
 of the weather, Mrs. Benjamin was seriously ill. A 
 painful operation became necessary, and he sat by her 
 side and held her hand during the terrible ordeal. As 
 the spring came on he did not rally. On April 23d 
 he wrote to Mr. Lawley : "I have been very ill (but I 
 believe I have turned the corner this time), otherwise 
 I could not have left unanswered your sympathetic 
 and affectionate letter ; but I have been quite unable 
 to write. For more than two months, I have alter 
 nated between my bed and my armchair ; but if we 
 can only get rid of this glacial temperature and dry 
 east wind, I shall get some strength. What I require 
 is warmth will it never come ? " He had not turned 
 the corner : on Tuesday, May 6, 1884, the great and 
 kindly gentleman died at his house in Paris. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENT 
 
 As was fitting for one who, in spite of exalted sta 
 tion, had always been singularly unostentatious, the 
 funeral of Mr. Benjamin was very simple. Services 
 were held at midday on Saturday, May 10th, at the 
 Church of St. Pierre de Chaillot, and the body was 
 interred in the great cemetery of Pere La Chaise. I 
 shall not pause in this place to discuss the question of 
 Mr. Benjamin's religion, to which I shall recur. For 
 that which he had chiefly labored, the comfort of his 
 family, it was found that there was ample provision. 
 His will, written entirely by his own hand, and dated 
 April 30, 1883, devised legacies, all free of state dues, 
 amounting to a total of 18, 000, apportioned in vari 
 ous sums to his three sisters, to his brother Joseph, 
 and to nieces and nephews. The residue of his estate 
 he left to "ray said dear wife Natalie and to our only 
 child Mnette, wife of Captain Henri de Bousignac, 
 now captain in the One Hundred and Seventeenth 
 Regiment of the line of the French army. If either 
 my said wife or my said daughter should die before 
 me, the survivor is to be my sole residuary devisee 
 and legatee. I have no real estate in England, but I 
 have in France the family mansion or hotel at No. 41 
 Avenue d'Jena, Paris, in which I have resided since 
 my withdrawal from the bar, and in which I contem 
 plate residing the rest of my life." The will further 
 
CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENT 419 
 
 appointed as executors, John George Witt and Lindsey 
 Middleton Aspland, two London barristers, by whom 
 it was proved on June 28, 1884. The personal estate, 
 consisting of various securities, was appraised by the 
 executors at 60,221 9s Id. Owing to the fact that 
 Mr. Benjamin died abroad, and had become domiciled 
 there, at first some doubt was felt as to where the 
 will should be proved, in France or in England. In 
 view of the insistence in its phraseology on his resi 
 dence in Paris, he evidently meant that place to be his 
 domicile. But it was discovered that under a statute 
 which he doubtless had in mind, " the will of a British 
 subject domiciled abroad may be proved in England 
 without any proceeding in the foreign country"; 
 hence all difficulties were removed. It was a curious 
 fact, noted by legal writers at the time, that "he was 
 all his life a British subject, had been a senator of the 
 United States and the Confederate Attorney-General, 
 became domiciled in England, and died a domiciled 
 Frenchman." 1 
 
 The ample fortune thus left to those for whom he 
 had made it was the third one wrought out from the 
 brain of this man, who had begun as a penniless law 
 yer's clerk in New Orleans something more than fifty 
 years before. The steps in the accumulation of this 
 great wealth, for which, he told Mr. Lawley, he had 
 worked harder than ever in his life before, not barring 
 even the toilsome years in Richmond, are made plain 
 for us through his fee-book, 2 wherein he kept a record 
 of his earnings from 1867 to 1882. The full array of 
 
 1 A Generation of Judges, p. 202 ; Albany Law Journal, Vol. 30, 
 p. 62. 
 
 2 Lawley MS. ; see appendix. 
 
420 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 figures would be but dry reading, and perhaps puz 
 zling ; I therefore give some of the items only. In the 
 first year, 1866-1867, his fees amounted to 495 12s 3d. 
 Two years later (1869), in the course of the year when 
 his book appeared, they had doubled : 1, 074 (I omit 
 the shillings and pence). And in 1871, when he wrote 
 that he had " turned the corner," they were 2,100. 
 Before the end of his next year the first promotion as 
 Queen's Counsel had come, and bore fruits at once ; for 
 now the figures are more than doubled in one year : 
 5,623. From that time on the increase in receipts is 
 very rapid, till we reach 13,812 in 1876 ; 15,742 in 
 1878; and in 1880 the maximum of 15,972. The 
 total for the sixteen years is 143,900, or, expressed in 
 round figures and in American currency, something 
 more than $700,000. Popular fancy, dazzled by the 
 rapidity of Mr. Benjamin's success, had placed his 
 earnings at a much higher figure ; they are surely suf 
 ficiently amazing, however, without fantastic incre 
 ment. It is probable that, during his most fortunate 
 years, from 1877 to 1882, his profits in England ex 
 ceeded those of the best years in New Orleans ; for 
 though the American lawyer, then as now, got larger 
 single fees than his British brother, there was in 
 Benjamin's case always a division with partners in 
 America, while in England he had no one to divide 
 with, and by an automatic arrangement even the Eng 
 lish barrister's clerk is provided for by a percentage 
 of the fees. Benjamin's chief clerk, it is said, got in 
 one year from his percentage 1,200 ; and upon his 
 retirement was presented by him with 500. 
 
 Mere ability to make money, however, is but a poor 
 gage of real legal ability. I have given in the course 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 421 
 
 of the preceding chapter sufficient comment and suffi 
 cient evidence in support, I trust, to establish the fact 
 that English lawyers held the very highest opinion of 
 his intellectual powers. None among his contempo 
 raries, indeed, ranked above him ; and it was generally 
 agreed that only the peculiar circumstances of his 
 career in England prevented his occupying the bench. 
 There was always a little hesitancy lest the government 
 of the United States be oifended ; and, as one writer 
 remarks, when he was young enough for the bench he 
 was too young at the bar, when old enough at the bar 
 he was already too far advanced in years. 1 
 
 Connected with his ability as a lawyer, at least in 
 America, was his power as a speaker and as a writer. 
 I have mentioned some of the English criticisms upon 
 his delivery ; certainly no fault was ever found with it 
 in America. On the contrary, all unite in testifying to 
 the exquisite melody of a voice that, though soft, yet 
 penetrated ; to the distinctness and faultlessness of a 
 rapid enunciation ; and to the perfection of simplicity 
 in manner and carriage, the complete absence of ora 
 torical tricks and histrionic gestures. And in the 
 style of his writings, whether speeches for the general 
 public audience, speeches in the Senate, state papers, 
 or legal arguments, one finds the same characteristics 
 I have rather frequently noted : lucidity, simplicity, 
 directness of statement, with sentences usually short, 
 and with little extrinsic ornament. As significant of 
 this, I cannot forbear calling attention to the fact that, 
 in all the numerous citations I have made from the 
 many varieties of his writings there is scarce a foreign 
 phrase ; though familiar with French, he seeks the fit 
 
 1 Generation of Judges. 
 
422 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 English word ; nor does he resort frequently to Latin, 
 and to Spanish and German not at all. In this re 
 spect, as indeed in his fine feeling for style in general, 
 he is a good model for those who find the limits of 
 their native tongue too narrow to contain their thought. 
 His speeches read well, and indeed, as a recent writer 
 has remarked, 1 would entitle him to rank with Sumner, 
 Beecher, Phillips, or Yancey, as one of those who 
 " stirred multitudes, aroused passions and fired the 
 public heart in terms not less eloquent than the loftiest 
 productions of Fox or Pitt, of Patrick Henry or John 
 Adams." 
 
 In considering Benjamin as an orator and as a states 
 man one cannot forget the other great member of his 
 race who at the same time held sway as statesman, 
 orator, and novelist in England. But the resemblances 
 between Judah P. Benjamin and Benjamin Disraeli 
 are largely superficial and of no significance. The 
 fastidious dandy whose waistcoats used to startle the 
 House, whose Oriental imagination overflows in Lo- 
 thair, whose very name, indeed, carries something of 
 exotic suggestion with it, has little but his race, and his 
 success, in common with the hard-working, accurate, 
 modestly attired American lawyer. Their geniuses 
 were of different types ; if it be an axiom and a com 
 monplace to say that the style is the man, I risk it in 
 this case, and need do no more than ask the reader to 
 compare a page of Lothair's or Vivian Gretfs exuber 
 ance with the cautious repression of some of the pas 
 sages quoted from one whom Americans may call l i our 
 Benjamin." 
 
 In personal habits, Mr. Benjamin was in one sense, 
 
 The Forum, Oct., 1894. 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 423 
 
 indeed, an " exquisite," though not of the Beacons- 
 field school. Always fastidiously neat, he was care 
 ful of his dress, and disliked anything in it that would 
 attract attention. Simple black was therefore his pref 
 erence; and the letter describing his costume as 
 Queen's Counsel will show that he never got over his 
 democratic dislike of fuss and feathers ; he even had a 
 distaste for the formal black evening coat, since it 
 usually went with a " function." A similar neatness 
 characterized his business habits ; and of these his clear 
 and almost faultless handwriting, so frequently com 
 mented on, is typical. Mr. Witt, his executor, has 
 this to say of traits that seem to have impressed them 
 selves on everybody who came in contact with Mr. 
 Benjamin, Q. C., probably the hardest working mem 
 ber of the London bar : "If you called on him in his 
 chambers, you were perfectly sure to find him seated 
 at his table, writing a letter with a gold pen, in the 
 best of style, with nothing on the table except the 
 note-paper and a tidy blotting pad. No papers lit 
 tered about no untied briefs. He welcomed you with 
 the air of a man who had nothing just then to do ex 
 cept to enjoy a chat. If he wanted to find a paper for 
 you, he unlocked the proper drawer in his table, and 
 at once handed you the document. What a contrast 
 to the fussy, no-tinie-for-anything people, busybody 
 feeble folk, one usually comes across. Every one 
 knows the sort. They cannot spare you a minute ; 
 they are overwhelmed with work ; their papers strew 
 the table, the chair, and the floor. Mr. Benjamin was 
 never in a hurry, never important with this big thing 
 and that big thing never pretentious, always the same 
 calm, equable, diligent, affable man, getting through 
 
424 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 an enormous mass of work day by day without ostenta 
 tion and without friction. Another trait he left no 
 documents. When I first became friends with him he 
 told me that on his starting in law business in New 
 Orleans, his partner taught him that the secret of 
 human happiness was the destruction of writing. 
 1 Never,' said he, 'keep any letter or other document 
 if you can possibly help it. You only give yourself in 
 finite trouble, and if you die, you bequeath a legacy of 
 mischief. Of course you may have a piece of business 
 going on which compels you to preserve correspondence 
 for a time, but do not keep it a moment longer than is 
 absolutely necessary. ? He did not preach without 
 practicing. When he died, he did not leave behind 
 him. half a dozen pieces of paper. . . . 
 
 "He was absolutely free from vanity. His manner 
 was simple to a degree. He was not in the least self- 
 conscious. He never gave himself airs in friendly in 
 tercourse, in society, and in court, the last thing that 
 was in his mind was himself. The subject under dis 
 cussion, the case under argument, absorbed him, and 
 left no room for other thought." 1 
 
 Mr. Witt and others tell us, too, of Mr. Benjamin's 
 " amiability of disposition" ; his " desire to help his 
 brother barristers in the pursuit of fame and fortune " ; 
 his " kindness of heart," which, combined with his 
 " high sense of honor " and that rightly beloved Eng 
 lish "fair play," immediately disarmed hostility, and 
 conciliated the good will of every one. Baron Pollock, 
 to give a specific instance, tells how Benjamin un 
 hesitatingly and with precision gave him an opinion, 
 in friendship, on a difficult point of law ; and how, 
 1 Lawley MS, 
 
CHABACTER AND ACHIEVEMENT 425 
 
 some days later, he quite unexpectedly found himself 
 opposed to Mr. Benjamin as counsel in arguing a case, 
 used the arguments with which his fellow lawyer 
 had furnished him, and won. Mr. Benjamin was in 
 all ways of most generous disposition, desirous to aid 
 his friends in any perplexity, to give his time for mere 
 courtesy's, sake, or to give his brain, or to give money. 
 He was lavish in his expenditures for private charity, 
 always willing to help, it is said, the forlorn who ap 
 pealed in the name of the dear " lost cause " or of re 
 ligion. Of course, specific instances of this sort are 
 hard to give, especially in the case of one so reticent to 
 outsiders ; but a fair sample seems to me to be : 
 " Tell Lionel that I have sent an order on him for one 
 
 hundred dollars in favor of Mrs. L , the widow 
 
 of a former District Judge in New Orleans whom I 
 knew in old times and who wrote me a most pitiful 
 story of her distress. . . . He can draw on me for 
 the amount.'' l 
 
 More than the cold giving of money have we not 
 high authority for thinking so 1 was the gentleness of 
 spirit, the consideration for the feelings of others. 
 One little incident, related by Mrs. Davis, 1 will illus 
 trate what I mean. At a party in Eichmond he 
 happened to observe a poor girl who had retired to a 
 corner and was having a very unhappy time over that 
 greatest of feminine tragedies her gown was not 
 right: "Mr. Benjamin passed, and though he had 
 rarely spoken to her saw her embarrassment, and sat 
 down by her. After a little desultory ball-room talk 
 he said, i How very well you are dressed 7 (we did not 
 
 1 Letter to Mrs. Kruttschnitt, March 23, 1880. 
 
 2 Private letter and Lawley MS. 
 
426 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 say l gowned 9 in that day), ' I could not suggest any 
 improvement in your costume. ' He told me afterward 
 how the poor little creature brightened up, and how 
 he took some * grist to her mill ? in the shape of 
 partners. 'Thus,' said he, 'I made two green blades 
 to grow where only one had been before.' " 
 
 "No shade of emotion in another," continues this 
 lady whose warm friendship has stood the test of years 
 and separation, "escaped Mr. Benjamin's penetration 
 he seemed to have a kind of electric sympathy with 
 every mind with which he came into contact, and very 
 often surprised his friends by alluding to something 
 they had not expressed nor desired him to interpret. 
 . . . Perhaps I attach too much importance to the 
 humanism of great men, but I have observed that this 
 quality is oftenest found wanting in men of great in 
 tellect. Looking down from their great elevation the 
 sorrows of the humble in the valleys beneath would 
 naturally escape them ; but the gracious sympathy of 
 men mentally endowed beyond their fellows is espe 
 cially beautiful when it is used to lighten the griefs of 
 their less gifted friends." 
 
 Another instance of his thought for others given by 
 Mrs. Davis is somewhat comical, and also serves to 
 display his own fondness for good things to eat. He 
 was, indeed, a gourmet, not a large eater, but most 
 fastidious in his taste, relishing extraordinarily dainty 
 and highly seasoned dishes; he "loved i lollipops,' as 
 he called candy, like a child." On one occasion he 
 was enjoying some special luxuries at Mrs. Davis' s 
 table, in Richmond days, when i i he stopped midway 
 in a criticism upon Les Miser ables of Victor Hugo 
 (which had just reached the Confederacy) and whis- 
 
CHAKACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 427 
 
 pered to me : ' I do not enjoy my dinner, for Jules 
 ( his brother-in-law, who lived with him in Eichmond) 
 would like these dishes so much, and he is young and 
 values such things.' I begged him to let me send 
 some of the dinner to his house ; but he declined, say 
 ing : i The papillottes would fall flat and the salad 
 would wilt ; but if I might take him some cake and 
 lollipops, I should feel very happy.' He would not 
 allow a servant to carry them, but took them in a 
 parcel covered with a napkin, and walked home beam 
 ing with the hope of conferring pleasure upon his 
 beloved Jules." 
 
 Loyal to friends and to family, steadfast in adher 
 ence to political principles and ideals, he was yet not 
 a patriot of the highest type. The citations from his 
 letters have shown that he kept up a lively interest in 
 the political conditions at the South j indeed, few 
 political prophets have ever estimated a situation with 
 greater accuracy than the writer of these words, in a 
 letter to Mr. T. F. Bayard, November 11, 1865 : "If 
 the Southern states are allowed without interference 
 to regulate the transition of the negro from his former 
 state to that of a freednian, they will eventually work 
 out the problem successfully, though with great diffi 
 culty and trouble, and I doubt not that the recupera 
 tive energy of the people will restore a large share of 
 their former material prosperity much sooner than is 
 generally believed ; but if they are obstructed and 
 thwarted by the fanatics, and if external influences are 
 brought to bear on the negro and inflame his ignorant 
 fancy with wild dreams of social and political equality, 
 I shudder for the bitter future which is in store for my 
 unhappy country. " 
 
42$ JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 There can be no question that the wisdom and the 
 political experience of Judah P. Benjamin would have 
 counted for a host in helping the South to solve the 
 problems with which his sagacity foresaw that she would 
 be burdened. He had not, as I have tried to make 
 clear, led his section into the war ; but during the 
 fatal years of that war no one man had had a greater 
 share in directing the destinies of the South, save the 
 President alone. That President, saddled with the 
 odium of drastic policies rendered necessary by the 
 war, and held responsible for disasters which neither 
 he nor any other man could, in all human probability, 
 have averted, was captured by the foes of the Con 
 federacy and imprisoned and menaced with death : he 
 emerged the South' s martyr. Because he abode with 
 his people and had suffered in their name, his enemies 
 were silenced, his shortcomings and offenses were for 
 given and forgotten. Had Mr. Benjamin remained, 
 too, though there was the probability of imprisonment 
 and the menace of death, was there not also the cer 
 tainty of such gratitude to him from the impulsive 
 people whom he knew so well, had served so long? 
 The perfect patriot is so much of the soil that he can 
 not survive transplantation. Of such, to note only two 
 examples from among the Confederates, was Alexander 
 H. Stephens of the politicians, and General Lee of the 
 soldiers, with a host of others who followed the ex 
 ample of good citizenship set by them. But of that 
 lofty, Puritanic type of patriotism Mr. Benjamin could 
 not boast. Thus remains a flaw in his character which 
 I would not seek to conceal, whatever excuses I may 
 find to urge. 
 
CHAKACTEK AND ACHIEVEMENT 429 
 
 Perhaps we shall not altogether do injustice to his 
 point of view if we suggest that it was, so to speak, the 
 outcome of professional training. He was a born 
 lawyer, and the excursion into politics was merely an 
 episode. Having, as it were, taken a brief for the 
 South, he earnestly and zealously fought for his client 
 as long as his abilities could avail. When the cause 
 was lost, after he had done all that in him lay to win 
 it, he accepted the decision as absolving him from 
 further useless effort. Though he felt for the South, 
 he thought that there rested no obligation upon him to 
 share her adversities. Material and other interests, 
 too, impelled him to seek a new home. His fortunes 
 were ruined ; if imprisoned, or even if not imprisoned, 
 he could not hope to repair them speedily in a country 
 in the condition of the South after the war. And he 
 had many dear ones dependent wholly or in great part 
 upon him for support. His wife and daughter lived 
 in France and would not live elsewhere. If he re 
 mained, there was the certainty of long continued 
 separation from them, and of inability on his part to 
 supply their needs. 
 
 The exercise of heroism is far easier, and far pleas- 
 anter to contemplate, from a safe distance than in 
 medias res. For his own fame, doubtless, heroism 
 would have been the best course, nor do I by any 
 means imagine that he did not understand this. But 
 the predominant trait in the man, as I have sought to 
 show, was devotion to his family. "Not for himself, 
 for he cared little for money, but for those he loved, ' J 
 writes one who knew him intimately in England, was 
 he determined to make another fortune. And if we 
 
430 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 consider these things, endeavoring to give them bear 
 ing as if upon our very selves, we shall not, perhaps, 
 judge him hastily and harshly. 
 
 The fact that Mr. Benjamin's wife and only child 
 lived in France for years before he went to England, 
 and that they continued to live there while he was just 
 across the Channel, cannot fail to excite comment. 
 The responsibility for this state of things rests not at 
 all upon him ; for no husband could have been more 
 affectionate, more attentive to the whims and fancies 
 of his wife, or been a more lavish provider. Those 
 family letters from which I have quoted only the parts 
 bearing particularly on the man, are filled with all 
 sorts of affectionate allusions to Mrs. Benjamin : he is 
 anxious not to disappoint Natalie and Ninette, who 
 will be waiting for him at the station in Paris to-mor 
 row evening, and have a party of pleasure on hand ; 
 he is sorry that he has to go off alone to a watering- 
 place, for his health, since Natalie cannot bear the 
 spa and is waiting for him in the Pyrenees ; he is 
 worried because Natalie must be left so much alone 
 with poor sick Jules, it is very depressing to her 
 spirits ; it is sad that she must be so much parted from 
 Ninette, for she frets so for her ; Natalie and Ninette 
 "are as busy as bees deciding on shades of color for 
 the decorations, patterns of paper for every room" (in 
 the house at 41 Avenue d'Jena), and "I am leaving 
 my study and library on the ground floor unfurnished 
 this year, as it will not be ready in time to be of any 
 service to me till next vacation " ; and "the two to 
 gether are as busy as bees, finishing the furnishing 
 and ornamentation of the l grand salon ? and threaten 
 ing to give several soirees during the winter on the 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 431 
 
 pretext that they want to establish intimate relations 
 with certain grand personages who can aid in the 
 more rapid promotion of the Captain," and so on, and 
 so on, the sum of it all being that there is ample and 
 multiform evidence of his taking the most active and 
 helpful interest in anything that might add to their 
 comfort or contribute to their pleasure. On the other 
 hand, close searching, and a faith that one might call 
 blind rather than simply charitable, is necessary to 
 discover that Mrs. Benjamin manifested the least solici 
 tude about his comfort. He wrote to Mr. Bayard l that 
 he hoped soon to have attained such a position that he 
 might move his family to London. No doubt he sin 
 cerely desired to do so 5 almost every letter home has 
 some allusion to the irksomeness of separation from 
 his wife and daughter. He hesitates even about per 
 mitting himself to hope for that chance to visit New 
 Orleans, since he owes his vacations to his family ; 
 and he spent with them every spare moment of time. 
 But Mrs. Benjamin, self-indulgent and indulged by 
 him, could be happy nowhere except in Paris. By a 
 strange perversion of truth, the English are called 
 " insular"; the greatest nomads, the most cosmo 
 politan nation, perhaps, that the world has known, 
 mind you, are held up as horrible examples of Philis 
 tine insularity, to combine terms that may convey my 
 meaning. The truly insular, surrounded by a veritable 
 Chinese wall of self-satisfaction, are the French ; the 
 homage of the barbarians to their dazzling Grand 
 Monarch and other like astonishing phenomena has 
 encouraged in them what one may call the Narcissus 
 habit. Mrs. Benjamin was a typical Frenchwoman, 
 
 'Sept. 11, 1869. 
 
432 JDDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 in tastes, and in point of view. She did not, prob 
 ably, understand at all that she was playing a selfish 
 part j but economy was i i fatiguing, ' ' and she could 
 no more consent to live in the wilds of barbarous 
 London (almost within hail, too, of the Champs Elysees) 
 than in the seclusion of " Bellechasse." 
 
 She was not without kindly feelings toward his 
 family in New Orleans, to whom she sent messages 
 and presents. But all of her real affection was centred 
 in her daughter, to such a point, indeed, that she was 
 somewhat jealous of Captain de Bousignac, and utterly 
 miserable when he took his wife away with him. The 
 daughter, too, was incapable of reciprocating the wealth 
 of affection displayed by her father ; she was in temper 
 ament more like her mother than like him. Both sur 
 vived him a number of years, the mother dying in 1891 ; 
 the daughter, without living children, in 1898. About 
 one thing only did Mrs. Benjamin, good Catholic that 
 she was, seem solicitous that her husband should be 
 deemed safe within the fold of the Church. 
 
 Was Mr. Benjamin a convert to Catholicism? On 
 his deathbed Catholic rites were performed over him, 
 and the services of that Church consecrated his fu 
 neral. Surely, they could do him no harm ; he was 
 probably, however, as thoroughly unconscious at the 
 time of the first rites as at the time of the last, though 
 he would very likely, also, have consented smilingly to 
 anything that could give comfort to his wife and 
 daughter. Surely, too, for one who had led an up 
 right and kindly life, with loving sympathy and charity 
 and gentleness to those who passed his way, Jew and 
 Gentile alike, in this day, will concede that there 
 could be some hope of the mercy of God, with or with- 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 433 
 
 out forms and ceremonies. It is incumbent upon us, 
 however, to glance again at the question of Mr. Ben 
 jamin's religion, since it is beyond doubt that the fact 
 of his being a Jew by birth has quickened interest and 
 curiosity about him. After a careful examination of 
 such data as could be discovered, I see no reason to 
 alter the opinion expressed in a preceding chapter, 1 
 nor have I much of consequence to add to what is said 
 there. A more detailed investigation than I can give 
 is that by Mr. Max J. Kohler, in his admirable mono 
 graph, 2 with whose conclusions I agree. Mr. Ben 
 jamin early ceased to conform to the observances of 
 the faith to which he was born ; but he never entirely 
 lost either his belief in or his memory of the tenets of 
 that faith ; he neither obtruded nor sought to conceal 
 his Jewish birth, of which, indeed, he was proud. He 
 rarely attended any religious services, but he would, 
 on occasion, hear good Presbyterian doctrine from 
 Dr. Hoge, or be edified on the proper relation subsist 
 ing between Church and State in Westminster. I have 
 it on the best authority (if, indeed, any other evidence 
 than the fact of Benjamin's own intelligence were 
 needed), from one very intimate with him, that he 
 was always a firm believer in immortality and in a 
 personal God ; the authority I consider good especially 
 since the person is a non-believer, and distinctly re 
 calls long and always good-humored (that's a won 
 der, in theology) controversies with him. In conclud 
 ing this subject I shall refer to an anecdote that is 
 related, in slightly varying forms, by several people. 
 
 1 Chapter II, p. 46. 
 
 2 Publications Am. Jewish Hist. Soc., No. 12; of. Jewish Ency 
 clopedia. 
 
434 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 Since it is told about both Disraeli and Benjamin, I 
 doubt its authenticity as regards either of these great 
 Jews ; but since it is a fine bit of the retort that fulmi 
 nates and blasts, I give it. Being contemptuously re 
 ferred to by an opponent in debate (some place the 
 scene in the Senate, some on the hustings in Louisiana) 
 as "that Jew from Louisiana," Benjamin retorted: 
 "It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors 
 were receiving their Ten Commandments from the im 
 mediate hand of Deity, amidst the thunderings and 
 lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of the distin 
 guished gentleman who is opposed to me were herd 
 ing swine in the forests of Scandinavia." l 
 
 It is universally stated by those who remember Mr. 
 Benjamin, that he was a brilliant and witty conversa 
 tionalist, with a fund of rich and varied information, a 
 marvelous facility in quotation, and withal a thorough 
 knowledge of the poetry at his tongue's end, a stock 
 of anecdotes, not too freely used, and a mastery of rep 
 artee. Where so many see the same thing, we must give 
 them credence j and yet the examples of Mr. Benjamin's 
 wit are few ; perhaps this is because there was no Boswell 
 or Lady Holland to record his witticisms. Of courte 
 ous, gallantly phrased repartee Mrs. Davis gives a good 
 example. She had disagreed with him on some trivial 
 point and declined to argue about it: " I playfully 
 said, 'If I let you set one stone, you will build a 
 cathedral. ' He laughed and answered, i If it should 
 prove to be the shrine of truth, you will worship there 
 with me, I am sure.' " Of quicker flash is his answer 
 to Gambetta, whom he met at dinner in Paris, and who 
 said, with what a theatrical toss of his mane we can well 
 
 1 Cf. Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 3, 1903, and Kohler, p. 83. 
 
CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENT 435 
 
 figure to ourselves: " Messieurs les journalistes an 
 glais sont les rois de la terre" alluding especially to 
 the power of the Times. Benjamin replied : "Par- 
 faitement, et ils ne sont janiais detrones." 
 
 But of humor there is an abundance in his letters ; 
 humor of a tender and playful sort that reached the 
 heart of those to whom it was addressed, and that will 
 hardly bear transplanting from the home garden. 
 They refer very frequently to the children of whom he 
 was specially fond, and who returned the affection. 
 Mrs. Bradford says that in 1872 she found him one day, 
 when she was a little late for dinner, lolling on the 
 lounge and reading, with as much zest as her boy, 
 whose playfellow he was, the Arabian Nights. He 
 longed for a grandchild, but was always disappointed, 
 for none of Mme. de Bousignac's children lived be 
 yond a few hours after birth. On one occasion, when 
 his hopes were high, he wrote home : u We have de 
 cided that it is to be a boy and that he is to become a 
 Marshal of France, so that anxiety is off my mind." 
 "Those dear little folks," he writes to Mrs. Levy 
 when mentioning her young grandson, as at least a pal 
 liative for rheumatism, " twine themselves so 'round 
 the heart that everything else seems trifling and unim 
 portant in comparison." "I have been away for so 
 long, alas ! " he writes to Mrs. Kruttschnitt, "that I 
 can't figure to myself, as the French say, how [your 
 children] look as grown up, and then your sweet little 
 things that I don't know at all ! Send me a list of 
 them ! I ain't joking, I want a list with ages. Of 
 course I know their names ; but I want to realize if I 
 can their ages." " Give Johnny [his great-nephew] a 
 
 1 Letter from Sir Campbell Clarke, Lawley MS. 
 
436 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 kiss for his lock of hair for Uncle Ben, and as I can't 
 send him a lock of mine, having none to spare, I send 
 him the postage stamps to buy candy. Tell him to 
 give a piece to J. P." l 
 
 The letters are full of indignant comments on the 
 stubbornness of that " dear old lady," Mrs. Levy, who 
 will not subside into the indolence becoming to one of 
 her years, but insists on gardening in spite of cold and 
 wet, and contracts rheumatism. If she will raise toma 
 toes, it's a pity she could not send them here : " I have 
 to pay eight cents apiece for them." But shortly, to 
 matoes have gone down ; "they only cost seven cents 
 now." To Leah, also, the loving playful references 
 are frequent: "Sis writes me . . . that dear 
 Leah's health is not as good as she could wish. This 
 will never do ! How can we get on for ' sauce ' if she 
 fails us ? It is my opinion that she requires a vast deal 
 of gaiety and society to get rid of her superabundance 
 of that article, and that if she does not avail herself of 
 every occasion, it will strike inward like the measles, 
 and prove fatal." 
 
 When his wife and daughter send a goodly list of 
 presents to various members of the family, he says : 
 ' ' It has been a labor of love for them, and my Lord 
 ship was not permitted to say a word on the subject, 
 except to select the box for Sis and the buttons for 
 Lionel ; and I venture to say that my superior taste 
 will be self-evident, when compared with that of the 
 1 inferior sex. ' ' > When he himself, after a very success 
 ful year, wrote to wish them all a Happy New Year (De 
 cember 14, 1877), and enclosed a draft for five hundred 
 dollars, specifying how the sum was to be distributed 
 he stipulated : "I make one general condition 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 437 
 
 Ernest is to pay for a bottle of champagne to drink the 
 health of your loving brother on New Year's Day ; so 
 his present is to pay a couple of dollars out of his own 
 pocket. And Kitt is to give a i grande seance scien- 
 tifique et amusante ' exhibiting the glories of micro 
 scopic research." 
 
 The same humorous vein crops out in several of the 
 few letters to friends that have been preserved. " My 
 dear Mrs. Bayard," he writes, 1 "it seems that Mrs. 
 Benjamin took it into her head to-day to have made for 
 you a cake of the kind she thought you liked, and I 
 found her determined when I came home, that /should 
 write you a line in her place, as she was unwilling to 
 ventilate her English in writing. I obey like a good 
 
 husband So much for her. For myself, I beg to 
 
 place myself on the very top of the list of your warmest 
 friends, and at the feet of your charming daughters. 
 Please don't let Bayard have any of the cake." And 
 in a pleasant, chatty letter to Mrs. Bradford, 8 with 
 whom he had frequent arguments as to the genius of 
 the Laureate, after quoting a verse which he expects 
 her ^to scorn, he continues : l ' This puts me in mind 
 of the indignation with which your soul must be in 
 flamed by the Times' criticism on Tennyson's new 
 poem which I propose to get by heart and use as a 
 weapon of offense against you whenever I am too much 
 provoked. I have not yet read it, however, and antic 
 ipate with delight selecting c pretty ' passages for your 
 special delectation. Honest confession is, however, 
 good for the soul, and I will avow at the expense of your 
 
 1 To Mrs. T. F. Bayard, not dated, but probably during the sum 
 mer of 1881. 
 * Oct. 26, 1872. 
 
438 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 triumph that I do wish Tennyson would let King Ar 
 thur alone for the present and take up some other sub 
 ject for his Lady Muse. 
 
 1 i The English people are as raw and fretful as their 
 worst enemies could wish over the San Juan award. 
 In private conversation I observe the very great sore 
 ness which is felt, and I begin to see that I was not 
 wrong in the forecast, that arbitration is not like 
 spermaceti, the sovereign ointment for an inward 
 bruise. . . . 
 
 1 i I give up the English climate wreak your venge 
 ance on it, and enjoy your triumph. It has rained 
 incessantly for a fortnight, yet an Englishman has had 
 the assurance to ask me to spend the day with him in 
 the country to-morrow (Sunday), because the t country 
 looks beautiful in its autumn dress, and we will have a 
 delightful walk.' Of course I wrote him an insulting 
 reply." 
 
 Surely, this was no dark conspirator hatching sin 
 ister plots, but a gentle, generous, and lovable man, 
 from whose exquisite private life I have drawn the 
 veil, I trust, with reverent hand. He had great 
 wealth, made honestly by his own labor, and expended 
 most freely for the pleasure of those he loved. From 
 the bitter accusations uttered in the heat of politics I 
 have not sought to shield his memory by concealing 
 them ; rather have I given them place in these pages, 
 confident that the record of good deeds, of kindly 
 thoughts, of great and honorable preferment that could 
 be placed beside them, would be answer sufficient. 
 And in judging the character of Judah P. Benjamin, 
 after a career brilliantly successful in so many fields, a 
 career that began as a penniless private tutor, rose to 
 
CHAEACTEE AND ACHIEVEMENT 439 
 
 a climax that would have ruined a weaker man in the 
 fearful ordeals of the Civil War, and culminated in 
 
 "That which should accompany old age, 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," 
 
 I shall let his English admirers give their judgment, 
 after they had met him in their courts for sixteen 
 years. " You know how Mr. Benjamin came among 
 us," said Sir Henry James at the farewell dinner, l 
 
 II and how we received him. Ejectum littore egentem ac- 
 cepimus; but no regret, no self-reproach has ever come 
 to us for having given him place within our kingdom. 
 He knocked at our doors and they were widely opened 
 to him. We found place for him in our foremost 
 rank ; we grudged him not the leadership he so easily 
 gained we were proud of his success, for we knew 
 the strength of the stranger among us, and the bar is 
 ever generous even in its rivalry toward success that is 
 based on merit. And the merit must have been there, 
 for who is the man save this one of whom it can be 
 said that he held conspicuous leadership at the bar of 
 two countries ? To him this change of citizenship and 
 transition in his profession seemed easy enough. From 
 the first days of his coming he was one of us. We had 
 been taught by the same teachers, Coke and Black - 
 stone. . . . But he was one of us not only in this 
 common knowledge. The honor of the English bar 
 was as much cherished and represented by him as by 
 any man who has ever adorned it, and we all feel that 
 if our profession has afforded him hospitality, he has 
 repaid it, amply repaid it, not only by the reputation 
 
 1 London Times, July 2, 1883. 
 
440 JUDAH P. BENJAMIN 
 
 which his learning has brought to us, but by that 
 which is more important, the honor his conduct has 
 gained for us. But he became one of us in fuller 
 spirit yet j not only the lawyer but the man was of us. 
 Eivalry with him seemed to create rather than to dis 
 turb friendship, and it was within the walls of our 
 courts that Mr. Benjamin first found those friends who 
 sit around him to-night. And how strange and quick 
 must have been his power to make them ! Mr. Ben 
 jamin sees here no small gathering of men who have 
 come in friendship to his side. To other men it may 
 be given also to have many friendships, but they take 
 a lifetime to form. They commence in childhood 
 and strengthen and increase as life goes on. The 
 years are few since Mr. Benjamin was a stranger to us 
 all, and in those few years he has accomplished more 
 than most men can ever hope in a lifetime to achieve. 7 ' 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 SINCE professional men may take an interest in the 
 matter, the appended extract from Mr. Benjamin's 
 fee-book (Laidey MS) gives the figures for his earnings 
 at the English bar. 
 
 s d 
 
 1867 495 12 3 
 
 1868 703 8 
 
 1869 1,074 7 2 
 
 1870 1,480 3 
 
 1871 2,100 17 
 
 1872 5,623 7 4 
 
 1873 8,934 3 11 
 
 1874 9,861 1 4 
 
 1875 11,316 
 
 1876 13,812 9 4 
 
 1877 14,741 3 7 
 
 1878 15,742 6 6 
 
 1879 14,632 5 2 
 
 1880 15,972 4 10 
 
 1881 14,632 3 2 
 
 1882 12,789 5 3 
 
 Total, 143,900 10 6 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 IN the subjoined list of books, periodicals, and other 
 sources, no attempt has been made to include those 
 having but slight or inconsiderable notices of Mr. Ben 
 jamin. Those found most useful to the writer, 
 whether for direct evidence or as supplying the neces 
 sary historic background, are included. The refer 
 ences in the footnotes are usually to the name of the 
 author, or to a condensed title ; where authorities are 
 frequently referred to, the bibliography shows the title 
 used for reference in the footnotes. Entries are made 
 in alphabetical order, and for convenience the authori 
 ties are classified under five heads, as I, Books, 
 Pamphlets, and Cyclopaedias ; II, Newspapers ; III, 
 Periodicals ; IV, Public Documents and Official Pub 
 lications ; Y, Private Sources. 
 
 I. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, AND CYCLOPEDIAS 
 A GENERATION OF JUDGES. By their Reporter, 1886. 
 ALFRIEND, FRANK H. Life of Jefferson Davis, 1868. 
 AMERICAN ANNUAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA (Appleton's), 1861, 1884. 
 BANCROFT, FREDERICK. Life of William H. Seward, 1900. 
 BARNES, T. W. Memoir of Thurlow Weed, 1884. 
 BATTLES AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1884-1887. 
 
 BERNARD, MONTAGUE. Historical Account of the Neutrality of 
 Great Britain during the American Civil War, 1870. 
 
 BIGELOW, JOHN. France and the Confederate Navy 1862-1868. 
 An International Episode, 1888. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 443 
 
 ELAINE, JAMES G. Twenty Years of Congress : From Lincoln to 
 Garfield, 1884. 
 
 BREWER, DAVID J. The World's Best Orations, 1899. 
 
 BULLOCH, J. D. Secret Service of the Confederate States in 
 Europe, 1884. 
 
 CALLAHAN, J. M. The Diplomatic History of the Southern Con 
 federacy, 1901. 
 
 COFFIN, CHARLES C. Marching to Victory, 1863, 1889. 
 
 CORTHELL, E. L. The Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Railway, 1886. 
 Pamphlet. 
 
 Cox, S. S. Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 1885. 
 
 CURRY, J. L. M. Civil History of the Government of the Con 
 federate States, 1901. 
 
 CYCLOPAEDIA OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. Appleton's. Edited 
 by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, 1891. 
 
 DAVIS, JEFFERSON. Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govern 
 ment, 1881. 
 
 DAVIS, (MRS.) VARINA A. H. Jefferson Davis Ex-President of 
 the Confederate States of America. A memoir by his 
 wife, 1890. 
 
 DE LEON, J. C. Four Years in Rebel Capitals, 1892. 
 
 DIRECTORIES. Directories of the cities of New Orleans and Lafay 
 ette, etc., for the years: 1835, 1838, 1841, 1842, 1844, 
 1846, 1850. 1851, 1853-1856, 1858-1861. 
 
 EADS, JAMES B. The Tehuantepec Ship-Railway, 1883. Pam 
 phlet. 
 
 HAMILTON, J. A. H. Article, "Benjamin, Judah P.," Diction 
 ary of National Biography, 1888. 
 
 HEADLEY, J. N., Confederate Operations in Canada and New 
 York, 1806. 
 
 HOLST, HERMANN E. VON. Constitutional and Political History 
 of the United States. Translated by John J. Lalor, 1889- 
 1892. 
 
 HURD, JOHN C. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United 
 States, 1858-1862. 
 
 JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER. American Orations : Studies in Ameri 
 can Political History, 1897. 
 
 JOHNSTON, R. M., AND BROWNE, WILLIAM H. Life of Alexan 
 der H. Stephens, 1884. 
 
444 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 JOHNSTON, WILLIAM PKESTON. The Life of General Albert Sid 
 ney Johnston, 1880. 
 
 JONES, J. B. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States 
 Capitol, 1866. 
 
 KEYES, E. D. Fifty Years' Observation of Men and Events, Civil 
 and Military, 1884. 
 
 KOHLEE, MAX J. Judah P. Benjamin: Statesman and Jurist. 
 Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, 
 No. 12. Pamphlet, 1905. 
 
 Article, "Benjamin, Judah P.," Jewish Encyclopaedia. 
 
 LEE, GUY CAELETON. The World's Best Orators, 1900. (Vol. 
 X, pp. 99-110.) 
 
 LEE, CAPTAIN ROBEET E. Recollections and Letters of General 
 Robert E. Lee, 1904. 
 
 LEOVY, H. J. The Ante-Bellum Bench and Bar. Transactions of 
 the Louisiana Bar Association, 1900. Pamphlet. 
 
 MCPHEBSON, EDWAED. Political History of the United States 
 during the Great Rebellion, 1865. 
 
 MASON, VIEGINIA. The Public Life and Diplomatic Correspond 
 ence of James M. Mason, 1904. 
 
 MOESE, JOHN T., JE. Abraham Lincoln. American Statesmen 
 Series, 1893. 
 
 NICOLAY AND HAY. Abraham Lincoln : a History, 1890. 
 POLLAED, E. A. The Lost Cause, 1866. 
 
 Life of Jefferson Davis. With a Secret History of the 
 
 Southern Confederacy, 1869. 
 
 POOEE, BENJAMIN PEELEY. Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the 
 National Metropolis, 1886. 
 
 RHODES, JAMES FOED. A History of the United States from the 
 Compromise of 1850, 1904. 
 
 RICHAEDSON, JAMES D. A Compilation of the Messages and 
 Papers of the Confederacy, including the Diplomatic Cor 
 respondence, 1861-1865. Published by permission of 
 Congress by James D. Richardson, 1905. 
 
 RUSSELL, WILLIAM H. My Diary North and South, 1863. 
 
 SABINE, JOSEPH. A Dictionary of Books relating to America. 
 (Vol. II, pp. 64, 66.) 
 
 SCHOULEE, JAMES. A History of the United States of America 
 under the Constitution, 1899. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 445 
 
 SCHWAB, J. C. The Confederate States of America. Financial 
 and Industrial History of the South during the Civil War, 
 1901. 
 
 SCOTT, H. W. Distinguished American Lawyers, 1897. 
 
 SEWAED, FREDERICK W. Seward at Washington, 1846-1872, 
 1891. 
 
 STEPHENS, A. H. The War Between the States, 1868-1870. 
 
 STEVENS, HENRY. The Tehuantepec Railway : Its Location, Fea 
 tures, and Advantages under the La Sere Grant of 1869, 
 1869. Pamphlet. 
 
 TEHUANTEPEC, ISTHMUS OF. Memorial setting forth the rights 
 and just reasons which the government of the United 
 States of Mexico has for not recognizing the validity of the 
 privilege for opening communication by the Isthmus of 
 Tehuantepec. Published by the Minister of Relations, 
 1852. Pamphlet. 
 
 TOMPKINS, H. C. Judah P. Benjamin. Alabama State Bar As 
 sociation Reports, 1896. Pamphlet. 
 
 TRASTOUR, P. Summary Explanation respecting the Tehuantepec 
 Canal, 1856. Pamphlet. 
 
 WHITAKER, JOHN. Sketches of Life and Character in Louisiana, 
 the portraits selected principally from the Bench and Bar, 
 
 1847. . . 
 
 WILLIAMS, J. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Results of a Sur 
 vey under] the'direction of Major J. G. Barnard for a rail 
 road to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 1852. 
 
 WISE, B. H. Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, 1899. 
 
 II NEWSPAPERS 
 
 The most valuable source for materials upon Mr. Benjamin's life 
 prior to the Civil War is the collection of newspapers on file at the 
 City Hall in New Orleans. At one period a particular journal may 
 be of great use, and then become utterly valueless ; hence it is im 
 possible within brief limits to indicate the periods covered by the 
 journals named below, But the following list includes those that 
 have been consulted for various periods; specific references are 
 given in the footnotes in all cases of importance : 
 
 The New Orleans Argus ; the New Orleans Bee; the New Orleans 
 Courier; the New Orleans Crescent; the New Orleans Delta; 
 the New Orleans True Delta ; the New Orleans Jefferaonian ; the 
 New Orleans Picayune ; the New Orleans Times / the New Orleans 
 
446 BIBLIOGEAPHY 
 
 Tropic; the London Daily Telegraph, February 10, 1883; the 
 London Times, July 2, 1883, and May 9, 1884. 
 
 The files of the New York Times and Tribune, 1861-1865, are of 
 course very useful, as publishing especially intercepted Confederate 
 correspondence ; but specific references to the particular copies of 
 these and other newspapers are given in the footnotes. 
 
 III. PERIODICALS 
 
 Albany Law Journal. Vol. 27, p. 182 ; Vol. 28, pp. 41, 61, 82 : 
 Vol. 29, pp. 382, 422 ; Vol. 30, p. 62. 
 
 ALDIS, O. F. Article, "Louis Napoleon and the Southern Con 
 federacy." North American Review, Vol. 129, pp. 342, 
 344. 
 
 The Athenaeum. 1888, Vol. I, p. 599. 
 
 BIGELOW, JOHN. Article, ' The Confederate Diplomatists, " Cen 
 tury Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 413. 
 
 CALLAHAN, J. M. Article, "The Confederate Diplomatic Ar 
 chives." The Pickett Papers. South Atlantic Quarterly, 
 Vol. 2, No. 1, January, 1903. 
 
 DAWES, HENEY L. Article, "Has Oratory Declined?" The 
 Forum, Vol. 18, p. 148. October, 1894. 
 
 DE Bow, J. B. DeBow's Commercial Review of the Southern and 
 Western States, Vol. I, 164, 167, 498; II, 322-345, 442; 
 V, 44-57, 357-364; X, 94-96 ; XII, 312; XIII, 45, et seq., 
 236, et seq. ; XIV, 1-23 ; XXI, 209-212 ; XL, 1-6. 
 
 " Diary of a Public Man." North American Review, Vol. 129, pp. 
 133, 134, 139, 263, 264, 271. 
 
 Gulf States Historical Magazine. Vol. II, No. 1, July, 1903. 
 
 HARBISON, BURTON N. Article, "The Capture of Jefferson 
 Davis," Century Magazine, Vol. 27, pp. 130-140, Novem 
 ber, 1883. 
 
 Jewish Chronicle. May 9, 1884. 
 Jewish World. May 16, 1884. 
 
 KOHLER, MAX J. Article, "Jews and the American Anti-Slavery 
 Movement," American Jewish Historical Society Publica 
 tions, Vol. II, No. 9, p. 52. 
 
 Law Journal. March 10, February 17, and July 14, 1883 ; May 17 
 and July 5, 1884. (See London Times, among News 
 papers.) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 447 
 
 Law Times. Vol. 75, p. 188, July 7, 1883 ; Vol. 77, p. 47, May 17, 
 1884. (See London Times, among Newspapers.) 
 
 LEBOWICH, JOSEPH. Article, "Judah P.Benjamin: a Bibliog 
 raphy," The Menorah Monthly, November, 1902; pp. 
 305-312. 
 
 New York Public Library Bulletin. Confederate Attorney-General 
 Kecords. Vols. I and II. 
 
 POLLOCK, CHARLES, BARON POLLOCK. "Reminiscences of Judah 
 Philip Benjamin," article in" Fortnightly Review, Vol. 
 69, pp. 354-361, March, 1898 ; also in The Green Bag, Vol. 
 X, pp. 396-401, and LittelVs Living Age, Vol. 217. 
 
 Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, 
 Sept. 1903. 
 
 RUSSELL, SIR WILLIAM H. Article, "Reminiscences of the Civil 
 War," North American Review, March, 1898, p. 373. 
 
 Solicitor's Journal, May 10 and July 7, 1884. 
 
 Southern Historical Society Papers. Vols. IV, VII, and XIV. 
 
 STERN, DAVID. Article, "Judah P. Benjamin," North Carolina 
 University Magazine, January, 1902, pp. 56-61. 
 
 SUMNER, J. O. Article, "Materials for the History of the Gov 
 ernment of the Confederacy, ' ' American Historical Asso 
 ciation Papers, Vol. IV. 
 
 SWALLOW, W. H. Article, " Retreat of the Conf ederate" Govern 
 ment," Magazine of American History, June, 1886. 
 
 VEST, G. G. Article, " A Senator of Two Republics : Judah P. 
 Benjamin," Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, October 
 3, 1903. 
 
 IV. PUBLIC DOCUMENTS AND OFFICIAL PUB 
 LICATIONS 
 
 References to the law reports Louisiana Annuals, United States 
 Supreme Court Reports, and English Reports are here omitted, 
 since the mere record of cases in which Benjamin appeared would be 
 necessarily extended, and of slight interest to any but legal students. 
 
 Acts and Resolutions of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate 
 States of America. 
 
 The Congressional Globe, 1853-1861. 
 
 Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of the State of Loui 
 siana begun and held in the City of New Orleans on the 14th day 
 of January, 1845. Published by Authority. New Orleans, 
 1845. (Less full than Proceedings, below.) 
 
448 BIBLIOGEAPHY 
 
 Journal. Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1852. 
 
 Pickett Papers. Confederate Diplomatic and Consular Correspond 
 ence, now preserved in the Treasury Department, Washington, 
 D. C. These papers, so named because obtained chiefly from 
 Colonel John T. Pickett (see Callahan, Chapter I), have not yet 
 been published in complete form ; for portions of important dis 
 patches to and from Benjamin, see references to Official Records, 
 Mason, Richardson, Bigelow, and Callahan. 
 
 Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of Louisiana -which as 
 sembled at the City of New Orleans, January 14, 1844 (should be 
 1845). Eobert J. Ker, reporter. New Orleans, 1845. 
 
 Statutes at Large of the Confederate States of America. 
 
 United States Senate Reports. 44th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. I. 
 (Report on Confiscated Lands of J. P. Benjamin.) 
 
 War of the Rebellion. A Compilation of the Official Records of the 
 Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, 1880. Referred 
 to as Official Records. 
 
 V. PRIVATE SOURCES 
 
 1. Collection of manuscript materials made by the late Mr. 
 Francis Lawley, of London, with a view to his writing the life 
 of Benjamin. He completed no more than the bare rough draft of 
 opening chapters, with an outline of the proposed treatment. But 
 the collection includes a number of letters, usually of slight intrin 
 sic value, from Mr. Benjamin, numerous very valuable special con 
 tributions from those who knew Mr. Benjamin in England, (e. g. 
 Lord James of Hereford and Mr. Witt), letters, copies of news 
 paper clippings, copies of his fee-book, contributions of great inter 
 est from such persons in America as Mrs. Davis, Mr. L. Q. Wash 
 ington, and the Rev. Dr. Hoge, etc., and from some of the con 
 temporaries of Benjamin at school and college. Particular articles 
 in this collection are referred to by title, with reference to the 
 Lawley Manuscript in the footnotes. 
 
 2. Family Letters. A collection of letters covering the years 
 1864-1883 from Mr. Benjamin to members of his family in New 
 Orleans, kindly put in the hands of the writer by Mr. E. B. Krutt- 
 schnitt, of New Orleans. 
 
 3. Bayard Letters. A small collection of very interesting and 
 important letters from Mr. Benjamin to Messrs. James A. and 
 Thomas F. Bayard, with notes upon Mr. Benjamin made by the lat 
 ter, all carefully copied and furnished to the writer by Mrs. W. S. 
 Ililles (nee Bayard), of Wilmington, Del. 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHY 449 
 
 3. Miscellaneous letters and notes made from conversations with 
 Mrs. Jefferson Davis, Mrs. E. A. Bradford, Judge D. M. Shelby, 
 Mrs. Leah Popham (niece of Mr. Benjamin), Mr. E. B. Krutt- 
 schnitt (his nephew) ; a' few letters from Benjamin to James M. 
 Mason, in possession of Miss Mason. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABOLITIONISTS, agitation of 
 irritating and menacing to 
 the South, 85, 86, 109, 145, 
 146, 156. 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, Min 
 ister to England, 279, 280, 
 312, 322, 323. 
 
 Aime, Valcour, 53, 55, 59. 
 
 Alabama, Confederate cruiser, 
 278. 
 
 American Party, see Know 
 Nothing. 
 
 Andersonville, treatment of 
 Federal prisoners at, 374, 
 375. 
 
 Antietam, battle of, 278. 
 
 Aspland, L. M., 419. 
 
 BALL, DYER, 29. 
 
 Barlow, 8. M., 28. 
 
 Barnard, Major, engineer for 
 the Tehuantepec Co., 127 ; 
 expelled from Mexico, 129. 
 
 Bayard, James A., 28, 173, 174, 
 178, 366, 373. 
 
 Bayard, Thomas F., 28, 30, 173, 
 174, 175 ; recounts Benja 
 min's quarrel with Davis, 
 178, 374, 410, 427, 431. 
 
 Bayard, Mrs. Thomas F., 437. 
 
 Beauregard, General P. G. T., 
 243, 273, 274. 
 
 Belden, R. C., reminiscences of 
 Benjamin as a schoolboy, 25. 
 
 Bellechasse, plantation, 36, 48, 
 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 119. 
 
 Benjamin, Alexander, 367. 
 
 Benjamin, Harriet, 24, 25, 335, 
 343, 367, 377, 389, 397. 
 
 Benjamin, Joseph, 24, 344, 367, 
 372. 
 
 Benjamin, Judah Philip, par 
 entage, 21,22; birth, 23, 30 ; 
 removal to the United States, 
 23, 24; boyhood and educa 
 tion, 24-27; brief career at 
 Yale, 27-31 ; removal to New 
 Orleans, 29, 30, 32; studies 
 law, 29, 33 ; admitted to the 
 bar, 34; marriage, 34, 35; 
 religion, 35, 44, 46, 47 ; rapid 
 success at the bar, 37-40; 
 counsel in the Creole cases, 
 41-43; sketch of, by a con 
 temporary, 43-45 ; acquires 
 an interest in u Bellechasse " 
 plantation, 48 ; experiments 
 in sugar culture, 51-57; ar 
 ticles in De Bow's Heview, 
 52-55 ; establishes his mother 
 and sisters at ' ' Bellechasse, ' ' 
 57; the life there, 58-61; 
 financial losses, 61 ; active in 
 politics as a Whig, 64 ; elected 
 to the Louisiana legislature, 
 66, 68; accused of being a 
 Know Nothing, 69, 71 ; elected 
 to the Louisiana constitutional 
 convention of 1844, 74, 77 ; 
 political opinions, and serv 
 ices in the convention, 69-74, 
 75-95; views on slavery and 
 the Abolition agitation, 42, 
 62, 85-90 ; presidential elector 
 on the Whig ticket, 1848, 95; 
 elected to the Louisiana Sen 
 ate, 98, 99; elected to the 
 United States Senate, 99-102; 
 
452 
 
 INDEX 
 
 partisanship, 102, 105, 112; 
 elected to the Louisiana con 
 stitutional convention of 1852, 
 and is its guiding spirit, 104, 
 105, 107 ; his course shows a 
 change in political views, 
 106-112; election as United 
 States Senator contested, 113- 
 117; association with John 
 Slidell, 118; declines a seat 
 in the Supreme Court, 118 ; 
 interest in the Tehuantepec 
 Co., 119-133; in the Jackson 
 Railroad, 134-136 ; Boston 
 Club banquet in his honor, 
 138 ; council in the McDonogh 
 case, 139,140; legal partner 
 ship with Micou, Bradford 
 and Finney, 141, 142 ; visits 
 Ecuador and conducts a case 
 there, 142, 143 ; reported pur 
 chase of guano island, 144; 
 views on the Know Nothings, 
 146 ; on slavery and the Ab 
 olitionists, 146-149, 156, 157 ; 
 speech in the Senate on the 
 Kansas Bill, change of po 
 litical party, 151-159 ; warn 
 ing of Southern secession, 
 153 ; views on rights of the 
 states, 153 ; foresees war, 158 ; 
 enters campaign of 1856 as a 
 Democrat, 159 ; speech at Odd 
 Fellows' Hall, 159, 160 ; repu 
 tation as a speaker, 162 ; 
 speech in the Senate on the 
 Lecompton Constitution, 
 162, 163 ; attempt to prove ex 
 istence of slavery under Eng 
 lish law, 163, 164 ; opposition 
 to second term in the Senate, 
 165 ; Houmas land affair, 166- 
 370; rejected to the Senate 
 by a narrow margin, 170- 
 172 ; friendship with the Bay 
 ards and others, 174-176; 
 quarrel and reconciliation 
 with Jefferson Davis, 177- 
 
 179 ; views on Cuba and fili 
 busters, 179; employed as 
 counsel to assist in pros 
 ecuting the filibuster, Hen 
 derson, 180-184 ; goes to 
 Mexico in the interest of the 
 Tehuantepec Co., 186-189 ; 
 opposition to Douglas in the 
 Charleston convention, 191- 
 193 ; comment on the Lin 
 coln-Douglas debates, 194, 
 195 ; attitude on the question 
 of the return of negroes from 
 captured slavers, 196-198 ; 
 forms legal partnership with 
 Bonford and Finney, 200 ; en 
 gaged in United States vs. 
 Castillero, New Almaden 
 mines case, 201, 202 ; uncer 
 tainty as to his views on 
 secession, 202 ; pronounces 
 for secession, 203-206 ; speech 
 in the Senate to justify the 
 Southern position, 206-212; 
 described as a speaker, 213; 
 action on the Crittenden 
 Compromise, 213-216 ; not a 
 prime mover in the secession 
 of Louisiana, 217, 218; fare 
 well address in the Senate, 
 218-223; returns to New 
 Orleans, 225 ; last address in 
 New Orleans, to the Wash 
 ington Artillery, 226 ; ap 
 pointed Attorney-General of 
 the Confederacy, 229; de 
 scribed by Russell and Jones 
 in Montgomery, 231-233 ; ad 
 vocates energetic policy, 233- 
 235 ; proceeds with the Con 
 federate government to Rich 
 mond, 237 ; becomes influen 
 tial with Davis, 238; ap 
 pointed Secretary of War, 
 240 ; merits and failings as 
 Secretary of War, 241-247; 
 Brownlow affair, 248-251 ; 
 loss of Forts Henry and 
 
INDEX 
 
 453 
 
 Donelson, 251 ; Roanoke 
 Island, 252-255 ; investiga 
 tion by Congress, 256; ap 
 pointed Secretary of State, 
 256 ; weakness as Secretary of 
 War, 257, 258; takes up 
 diplomatic policy of his pred 
 ecessors, faith in King Cot 
 ton, 262, 263 ; instructions to 
 Mason and Slidell, 266 ; diffi 
 culty of communicating with 
 diplomatic representatives, 
 268; receives report of Ma- 
 sou's reception in London, 
 271 ; alarmed by his threat 
 of withdrawing, 272 ; policy 
 checkmated in England, 280 ; 
 proposal of a subsidy to 
 France, 283-285 ; Mercier's 
 visit, 286-289 ; delay and dif 
 ficulty in communicating with 
 commissioners and obtaining 
 information of foreign affairs, 
 290-294 ; suspicions of a 
 French intrigue in Texas, 
 294-299; report of Slidell's 
 interviews with Napoleon and 
 offer of subsidy, 300-303; 
 urges Napoleon to recognize 
 the Confederacy, 305, 306; 
 negotiation of the Erlanger 
 loan, 306 ; circular on slave 
 trade, 309-312; acts on the 
 hint that Confederate cruisers 
 may be built in France, 312 ; 
 efforts to influence European 
 opinion through the press, 
 313, 31 4; relations with British 
 consuls, 317-321 ; instructs 
 Mason to withdraw from 
 England, 322; expulsion of 
 British consuls, 324-326 ; 
 duties of the Secretary of 
 State, life and habits, 327- 
 334 ; treatment of his sisters 
 in New Orleans, 335-338 ; 
 continued efforts at diplo 
 matic relations with France, 
 
 339 ; convinced of Napoleon's 
 bad faith, 341, 342 ; still be 
 lieves in the success of the 
 Confederacy, 342; letter to 
 his sister in New Orleans, 
 342-345; Confederate emis 
 saries in Canada, 345-348; 
 wins over Davis to the policy 
 of arming the slaves, and 
 tentative proposals for eman 
 cipation, 349, 350; last po 
 litical address, 350, 351 ; retreat 
 from Richmond, 358-362; 
 perils of escape from the United 
 States, 363-371 ; cordially re 
 ceived in England, 371 ; visits 
 his family in Paris, 371 ; letter 
 on treatment of prisoners at 
 Andersonville, 374, 375; ekes 
 out his living by his pen, 
 376, 377 ; enters Lincoln's 
 Inn, a pupil under Mr. Charles 
 Pollock, 379; describes his 
 new surroundings in letter to 
 Bradford, 379-381 ; estab 
 lishes fact of his British birth 
 and is admitted to the bar, 
 382, 383 ; advantages and dis 
 advantages of his position, 
 384, 385 ; first brief in Eng 
 land, 387 ; successful struggle 
 in his new career, 388-396 ; 
 kindly personality revealed in 
 letters to family and friends, 
 388, et seq. ; preparation of 
 "Treatise on Sale," 389; its 
 publication and success, 392, 
 393; appointed Q. C. for 
 Lancashire, 395; his success 
 assured, 397 ; given patent of 
 precedence as Q. C., 398, 399 ; 
 conflicting estimates of tal 
 ents, 400-404; the "Non 
 sense" incident, 404, 405; 
 marriage of his daughter, 
 406 ; devotion to work, 407 ; 
 the Franconia case, 408 ; 
 builds a home in Paris, 408, 
 
454 
 
 INDEX 
 
 409; meets with serious ac 
 cident in Paris, 410, 411 ; 
 retires from the bar, 412, 
 413 ; general sympathy, cul 
 minating in a great farewell 
 banquet, 413-416; continued 
 ill-health, 416, 417; death, 
 417; funeral, 418 ; will and 
 estate, 418, 419 ; earnings at 
 the bar, 420 ; ability as lawyer 
 and orator, 421, 422 ; personal 
 traits, 423 ; patriotism, 427- 
 429; domestic relations, dis 
 position of his wife, 430-432 ; 
 religious opinions, 432-434 ; 
 humor, 434-437 ; English 
 opinion of his character and 
 achievement, 438-440. 
 
 Benjamin, Mrs. J. P. (Natalie 
 St. Martin), marriage, 34; 
 unsuited to her husband, 35 ; 
 goes to live in France, 36; 
 119, 228, 335, 371,397, 417; 
 temperament, 430-432. 
 
 Benjamin, Julia, 24. 
 
 Benjamin, Ninette, 9, 36, 335, 
 371, 394 ; marriage to Captain 
 De Bousignac, 406, 412, 430, 
 435. 
 
 Benjamin, Penina, 24 ; see also 
 Mrs. John Kruttschnitt. 
 
 Benjamin, Philip, 21, 22, 23, 
 24, 32. 
 
 Benjamin, Mrs. Philip, 21, 23, 
 24, 57, 58. 
 
 Benjamin, Rebecca, 24 ; see also 
 Mrs. Levy. 
 
 Benjamin, Solomon, 24, 25. 
 
 Blaine, James G., 216-218, 220. 
 
 Bonford, P. E., partner of J. P. 
 Benjamin, 201. 
 
 Bradford, E. A., partner of J. P. 
 Benjamin, 108, 137, 138, 141, 
 200, 372, 379. 
 
 Bradford, Mrs. E. A., 378, 391, 
 435, 437. 
 
 Brett, Sir W. B., 387, 415. 
 
 Brownlow, W. G., "Parson," 
 
 248-251. 
 Buchanan, James, 160, 161, 187, 
 
 190, 191. 
 
 Bulloch, J. I)., 236, 312, 321. 
 Bull Run, first battle of, 237, 
 
 240; second, 276. 
 
 11 CAB VOTES," alleged frauds 
 in New Orleans elections, 66- 
 68. 
 
 Cass, Lewis, 159, 187. 
 
 Chaucellorsville, battle of, 316. 
 
 Clay, C. C., 346. 
 
 Confederacy, establishment of 
 government, 329, 333; re 
 sources of, 236, 246, 247 ; 
 diplomatic policy, 259, et seq. ; 
 emissaries in Canada, 345- 
 348; end of, 358, 361, 362. 
 
 Conrad, C. M., 37, 69, 70, 74, 
 75, 76, 77, 83, 334. 
 
 Conrad, F. B., 37, 40, 42. 
 
 Consuls, British, difficult re 
 lations with, 317-324 ; ex 
 pelled from the Confederacy, 
 324-326 ; French, supposed 
 conspiracy of. 294-299. 
 
 OeoZe,case of the slaver, 40-43. 
 
 Crescent City, steamer attacked 
 in Cuba, 137, 138. 
 
 Crittenden, J. J., compromise 
 proposed by, 202, 213-216. 
 
 Cuba, feeling against, in New 
 Orleans, 137, 180-184. 
 
 DAVIS, JEFFERSON, United 
 States Senator, 118, 196, 216, 
 2] 9 ; challenged by Benjamin, 
 177, 178 ; President of the Con 
 federacy, 227, 229, 233, 234, 
 235, 236, 237, 243, 277, 285 ; 
 fitness for his office, 238 ; re 
 liance on Benjamin, 239, 245, 
 255, 274, 327, 328, 332, 396 ; 
 respect for constitutional 
 rights in conduct of govern- 
 
INDEX 
 
 455 
 
 ment, 329 ; instructions to 
 agents in Canada, 345; rec 
 ommends enlistment of ne 
 groes, 349 ; speech after the 
 Hampton Roads Conference, 
 350; persuaded to promise 
 emancipation in return for 
 European recognition, 352 ; 
 retreat from Richmond, 358, 
 361, 362 ; reward for his cap 
 ture, 364 ; imprisonment, 369, 
 374 ; release, 390. 
 
 Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, 8, 13, 
 237, 244, 290, 291, 328, 331, 
 332, 333, 335, 351, 362, 374, 
 402, 405, 425, 426, 434. 
 
 De Bousignac, Captain Henri, 
 406, 416, 418, 431, 432. 
 
 De Bow, J. B., 51, 55. 
 
 De Leon, 313, 314. 
 
 Democratic party, in Louisiana, 
 65, 96, 103, 110 ; weakness of 
 as a national party, 149, 158 ; 
 split at Charleston, 191, 192. 
 
 Diplomacy, of the Confederacy, 
 basis of, 259-263. 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 300, 372, 
 422, 434. 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 155, 191, 
 192, 193, 194, 195. 
 
 Downs, Solomon W., 76, 77, 78, 
 79, 82, 90, 115. 
 
 ENGLAND, see Great Britain. 
 
 FILIBUSTERS, trial of, at New 
 Orleans, 180-185. 
 
 Finney, John, partner of J. P. 
 Benjamin, 141, 200. 
 
 Forsyth, John, Minister to Mex 
 ico, 187. 
 
 Fort Donelson, capture of, 251, 
 267, 273. 
 
 Fort Henry, capture of, 251, 
 267. 
 
 France, and the Confederacy, 
 259, 260, 269, 283, 299-301 ; 
 
 offer of a subsidy to, 284, 285, 
 302, 303; building of Con 
 federate cruisers in, 304, 305, 
 312, 339-341. 
 
 Franconia, case of the, 402, 408. 
 
 Fredericksburg, battle of, 281, 
 305. 
 
 GADSDEN Treaty, with Mexico, 
 originally containing clause to 
 ratify claims of the Tehuante- 
 pec Co., 133. 
 
 Gaines's Mill, battle of, 275. 
 
 Galapagos Islands, reported 
 value of, 143. 
 
 Garay, Jose, acquires railway 
 and canal rights in Tehuante- 
 pec, 121, 122, 123. 
 
 Gettysburg, battle of, 316, 317. 
 
 Gilmore, Colonel, informal peace 
 mission of, 342. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E.. British Chan 
 cellor of the Exchequer, New 
 castle speech, 279 ; 391. 
 
 Grant, General U. S., 238, 251, 
 348. 
 
 Great Britain and the Con 
 federacy, 259, 260 ; Mason 
 and Slidell, 263, 264 ; attitude 
 of upper classes in, 270, 316, 
 317 ; attitude of government, 
 270, 278, 308 ; allows escape of 
 Alabama, 278 ; Confederate 
 rams not allowed to sail, 321 ; 
 end of diplomatic relations 
 with, 321, 322, 323. 
 
 HAMILTON, J. R., 32. 
 
 Hampton Roads, conference at, 
 350 ; original report of com 
 missioners in Benjamin's 
 hands, 396. 
 
 Harrison, Burton, 361. 
 
 Hargous, P. A. , buys Tehuante- 
 pec rights, 124, 129, 185. 
 
 Henderson, General, trial of for 
 filibustering, 180. 
 
456 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hoge, Reverend Doctor, 333, 
 334; describes incidents of 
 retreat from Richmond, 358, 
 359, 360, 361, 363, 433. 
 
 Hotze, Major Henry, Confed 
 erate commercial agent in 
 London, 314, 317. 
 
 Houmas lands, scandal about, 
 166-170. 
 
 Huger, General Benjamin, 252, 
 253, 254, 256, 258. 
 
 Hunt, Randell, 45, 99, 100, 108, 
 116, 150, 171. 
 
 Hunt, T. G., 116. 
 
 Hunter, R. M. T., United States 
 Senator, 174 ; Confederate Sec 
 retary of State, 263 ; at Hamp 
 ton Roads Conference, 350. 
 
 Huntington, G. W., 59, 61, 
 369. 
 
 JACQUES, COLONEL, 342. 
 
 James, Sir Henry, British At 
 torney-General, opinion of 
 Benjamin, 384, 403, 414, 439, 
 440. 
 
 Jackson, General T. J., 275. 
 276, 277, 316. 
 
 Johnston, General A. S., 251, 
 253, 273, 274. 
 
 Johnston, General Joseph E., 
 238, 243, 248, 274, 275 ; sur 
 render of, 362. 
 
 Jones, J. B., clerk in Confed 
 erate War Department, 232, 
 237, 240, 245, 248, 255, 263, 
 274, 351, 352. 
 
 KENNEB, DUNCAN F., 99, 100. 
 334; sent as plenipotentiary 
 to Great Britain and France, 
 353-356. 
 
 Keyes, General E. D., impres 
 sions of Benjamin, 219. 
 
 Know Nothing, or Native Amer 
 ican party, 65, 69, 71, 74, 145, 
 146, 149, 158, 159, 161. 
 
 Kohler, Max J., on Benjamin's 
 
 religion, 433. 
 Kruttschnitt, Alma, 388, 393, 
 
 394. 
 Kruttschnitt, Ernest Benjamin, 
 
 8, 344, 398, 437. 
 Kruttschnitt, John, 344,370,373, 
 
 389, 437. 
 Kruttschnitt, Mrs. John, 60, 
 
 335, 342, 363, 367, 370, 371, 
 
 388, 398, 405, 435. 
 Kruttschnitt, Julius, 344. 394. 
 Kruttschnitt, Rebecca, 344. 
 
 LAMAE, L. Q. C., Confederate 
 commissioner to Russia, 309, 
 314, 315. 
 
 La Sere, Emile, 75, 77, 135, 
 185. 
 
 Lawley, Francis, 7, 8, 9, 22, 417, 
 419. 
 
 Lee, General Robert E., 238, 
 275, 276, 277, 305, 306, 316, 
 348, 349, 352, 353, 357, 358, 
 361, 428. 
 
 Levy, Mrs. Abraham (Rebecca 
 Benjamin), 24, 32, 57, 59, 61, 
 227, 228 ; experiences after 
 the fall of New Orleans, 335, 
 336, 337, 338, 343, 367, 373, 
 377, 394, 435, 436. 
 
 Levy, Jacob, 25. 
 
 Levy, Leah, see Popham. 
 
 Levy, Lionel, 344, 367, 373, 
 390, 425, 436. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, debates with 
 Douglas, 191, 194, 195; in 
 auguration, 233 ; proclamation 
 of emancipation, 279, 282, 
 307 ; at Hampton Roads, 350 ; 
 assassination, 364. 
 
 Lockett vs. Merchants' Insur 
 ance Co., 42. 
 
 Lopez, Narcisco, filibuster, 179. 
 
 Louisiana, political condition 
 in, between 1840 and 1850, 
 64-66, 91 ; local distribution 
 
INDEX 
 
 457 
 
 of slave population, 91; se 
 cession of, 218, 219. 
 
 Lush, Lord Justice, 387. 
 
 Lyons, Lord, British Minister in 
 Washington, 282, 286, 320. 
 
 McCARGO vs. New Orleans In 
 surance Co., 42. 
 
 McClellan, General George B., 
 223, 238, 248, 251, 274, 275, 
 276, 279. 
 
 McCulloch, R. S., 54. 
 
 McDonogh, John, will of, 139. 
 
 Mallory, S. R., 174, 196. 
 
 Malvern Hill, battle of, 275. 
 
 Mann, R. Dudley, Confederate 
 commissioner to Belgium, 
 358. 
 
 Marigny, Bernard, 91. 
 
 Mason, James M., United States 
 Senator, 132, 174, 196; Con 
 federate commissioner to Great 
 Britain, 263, 264, 265, 266; 
 hints that he may withdraw, 
 270-272, 277, 279, 280, 281, 
 308, 321 ; instructed to with 
 draw, 322, 323, 324; remains 
 in Paris as commissioner to 
 the Continent, 339, 353, 356 ; 
 remains in England for a time 
 after the end of the Confed 
 eracy, 374, 381, 387, 395. 
 
 Mercier, Count, French Min 
 ister in Washington, 282, 286, 
 287, 301, 307. 
 
 Mexico, political complications 
 in, affecting the Tehuantepec 
 Co., 122, 124, 127, 128, 129, 
 165; French designs in, 297, 
 354. 
 
 Micou, W. C., partner of J. P. 
 Benjamin, 141. 
 
 NAPOLEON III, Emperor of the 
 French, disposed to favor the 
 Confederate appeal for recog 
 nition, 269, 283, 284, 289, 294, 
 299, 301 ; offered a subsidy, 
 
 302-305; proposes mediation 
 to Seward, 307 ; doubtful part 
 played in connection with 
 building Confederate cruisers, 
 304, 305, 312, 317, 339, 340, 
 341, 342; designs in Mexico, 
 296, 297, 299, 354. 
 
 New Almaden mines, case of, 
 201. 
 
 New Orleans, size and resources 
 about 1830, 39 ; Jews in, 46 ; 
 politics, 64, 66 ; captured by 
 Federal forces, 274, 286, 301. 
 
 New York, attempt to burn, 
 345-348. 
 
 "Nonsense," incident in the 
 House of Lords, 404, 405. 
 
 O'CoNOR, CHARLES, 28, 29, 30, 
 31, 202. 
 
 PACK WOOD, THEODORE J., part 
 owner of " Bellechasse, " 54, 
 55, 56. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, British Pre 
 mier, 278, 300, 308, 356. 
 
 Plaquemines, notorious election 
 fraud in, 71. 
 
 Pollock, Charles, Baron, 379, 
 380, 381, 385, 386, 403, 424, 
 425. 
 
 Pollock, Frederick, Baron, 380. 
 
 PlaucluS, J. B., 75, 77. 
 
 Popham, Mrs., niece of J. P. 
 Benjamin, 60, 335, 336, 343, 
 436. 
 
 QUITMAN, GENERAL JOHN A., 
 180, 182, 183. 
 
 RAILROAD, Jackson, 119, 126, 
 
 134-136. 
 Richmond, Confederate capital, 
 
 236 ; life in during the siege, 
 
 333-335 ; fall and evacuation, 
 
 357, 358. 
 Rillieux, M., 53, 59. 
 
458 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Koanoke Island, capture by 
 
 Federal forces, 252-258, 267. 
 Eobb, James, 97, 135. 
 Roberts, Russell, 404. 
 
 ROSEHUS, CHRISTIAN, 39, 78, 
 80, 103. 
 
 Russell, John, Earl, British Sec 
 retary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, 270, 271, 272, 277, 279, 
 280, 300, 308, 320, 323, 324. 
 
 Russell, W. H., correspondent 
 of the London Times, 231, 262, 
 334. 
 
 ST. MARTIN, A., 34,59. 
 
 St. Martin, Jules, 334, 361, 371, 
 408, 427. 
 
 St. Martin, Natalie, see Mrs. 
 J. P. Benjamin. 
 
 St. Thomas, Danish West In 
 dies, 22, 23, 370. 
 
 Scott, General Winfield, 104, 
 110. 
 
 Secession, warning of, 153, 202 ; 
 theories of, 207 ; advocated by 
 Benjamin, 203, 204, 205 ; re 
 sponsibility for, 206, 214-217, 
 224 ; of Louisiana, 218. 
 
 Selborne, Earl, Lord Chancellor, 
 404, 414. 
 
 Seven Days' Battles, 275. 
 
 Seward, W. H., United States 
 Senator, 42, 145, 175, 176, 
 216 ; Secretary of. State, 271, 
 279, 280, 282, 301, 307, 312, 
 323, 324, 329, 350. 
 
 Sherman, General W. T., 348, 
 352. 
 
 Shiloh. battle of, 274. 
 
 Slavery, Benjamin's opinions 
 on, 42, 62, 85, 86, 93, 111, 
 146-149, 156, 162, 163, 164, 
 196 ; distribution of slave 
 population in Louisiana, 91 ; 
 not counted in population, 
 93, 94; counted, 107-109; 
 Benjamin's circular on slave 
 
 trade, 309 ; proposal to enlist 
 slaves, 349 ; proposal to eman 
 cipate slaves in return for 
 European recognition, 352. 
 
 Slidell, John, 38, 116, 117, 118, 
 135, 161, 165; in connection 
 with the Houmas lands, 168, 
 170 ; in connection with Te- 
 huantepec Co., 187, 190; in 
 connection with secession, 
 198, 205, 218, 220, 245 ; Con- 
 federate commissioner to 
 France, 263, 264, 265, 266, 
 269, 283, 299, 300, 302, 303, 
 304, 312, 339, 341, 353, 356, 
 372. 
 
 Slidell, Thomas, 37, 40, 42, 116. 
 
 Sloo, A. G., acquires rights on 
 the Isthmus of Tehuautepec, 
 131, 185, 186. 
 
 Smith, General Kirby, 362, 367. 
 
 Soule, Pierre, United States 
 Senator, 38, 78, 87, 117, 186. 
 
 Stephens, Alexander H., United 
 States Senator, 150, 227; 
 Vice-President of the Con 
 federacy, 233, 350, 428. 
 
 Stringer, G. R., 33. 
 
 Sugar, cultivation of, 48, 49, 50 ; 
 articles on, by Benjamin, 51- 
 56. 
 
 TAYLOR, GENERAL RICHARD, 
 344, 376, 391. 
 
 Tehuantepec, Isthmus of, pro 
 posed road and canal across, 
 96, 119-133, 185-190. 
 
 Tichborne, Sir Roger, 402. 
 
 Thompson, Jacob, sent on secret 
 mission to Canada, 345, 346, 
 347. 
 
 Toombs, Robert, United States 
 Senator, 169, 170, 196, 216, 
 225 ; Confederate Secretary of 
 State, 263. 
 
 Trent, steamer, seizure of Mason 
 and Slidell from, 263. 
 
INDEX 
 
 459 
 
 United States vs. Castillero, New 
 Almadeu mines case, 201. 
 
 VICKSBURG, fall of, 316, 317. 
 Villamil, General, 143. 
 
 WALKER, L. P., Confederate 
 Secretary of War, 234, 240. 
 
 Washington, L. Q., Confederate 
 Assistant Secretary of State, 
 263, 293, 294, 328, 330, 334, 
 347. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 104, 127, 130, 
 131. 
 
 Whig political party, strong in 
 Louisiana, 65, 66, 96, 102, 
 103; its disintegration, 110, 
 111, 112, 144, 146. 
 
 Whitaker, John, describes Ben 
 jamin, 43-45. 
 
 Wise, General H. A., 252, 253, 
 255, 256, 257. 
 
 Witt, J. G., 419, 423, 424. 
 
 YALE COLLEGE, Benjamin's 
 brief stay and reasons for 
 leaving, 26-31. 
 
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