 Though only a war-time resident of Richmond, Judah P.
Benjamin stood head and shoulders above any Jew who ever lived in this city.
Holding at various times three of the five Cabinet positions within the gift of
the head of the “storm-cradled nation,” President Davis was but voicing in a
practical manner the sentiment of those who called Benjamin “the brains of the
Confederacy.” Whenever there was doubt as to what disposition should be made
of some matter, it generally resulted in it being sent to Benjamin. It was not
unusual for him to remain at his desk from eight o’clock one morning until
four the next. The positions held by him in the Cabinet were: Attorney General,
February 25 to September 17, 1861; Secretary of War, September 17, 1861, to
March 18, 1862; acting Secretary of War, March 18 to 23, 1862; Secretary of
State, March 18, 1862, until the end of the war.
Upon the laying of the cornerstone of the Lee Monument,
October 27, 1887, the weather was very inclement, so the speaking incident
thereto took place that night in the Hall of the House of Delegates in the
Capitol building. The speaker of the evening was Colonel Charles Marshall, who,
during the war, had been General R. E. Lee’s military secretary. Colonel
Marshall spoke on some of the secret history of the Confederacy. He told one
incident of Benjamin that showed him to be as truly patriotic as any citizen who
ever lived on this or any other continent. It concerned his resignation as
Secretary of War. Early in ’62, General Huger, who was in command of Roanoke
Island, then in possession of the Southern forces, made a requisition for
powder. It was not sent. A second and third call were likewise ignored, and on
February 8th Roanoke Island fell.* Huger complained and in compliance
with his request a committee of Congress investigated the failure to send
powder. When the investigating body met, Benjamin in a very few words told them
why it was not sent —there
was not any to send, a temporary shortage of that munitions existing. The
committee being about to rise, Benjamin asked if it would not have a very
harmful effect on the people if the true state of affairs were disclosed. The
committee thought it would. The Cabinet official suggested that the report of
the committee censure him for not sending the powder. This was done, and to keep
up appearances, Benjamin sent in his resignation as Secretary of War. That same
day, to the intense disgust of many, the President appointed him Secretary of
State, he continuing for five days to act as Assistant Secretary of War. Except
to Davis and a few other high officials, the truth of the matter remained secret
until 1887. It was his resignation under a cloud that probably caused such a
violent dislike in some quarters to Benjamin, a dislike that was only heightened
by the promptness with which he was appointed to another portfolio. Colonel
Marshall told the writer that he had the incident in a letter from Mr. Benjamin.
*Jewish-Confederate soldier
Pvt. Henry Adler of the 46th Virginia lost his life in this battle.
LMB.
Immediately overhead, not fifty feet away, a different
tribute had been paid the Jew twenty-four years previous. Shortly before
Gettysburg, in the early summer of ’63, when the ultimate success of the
Confederacy seemed probable, the lower House of Congress was discussing a
resolution to remove the Capital to Nashville, Tenn. Henry S. Foote, of that
State, in the course of the discussion, remarked that so soon as the
independence of the Confederate States was achieved, he proposed to offer an
amendment to the Constitution that no Jew be allowed within twelve miles of the
Capital. (This of itself amounted to nothing, for Foote was admittedly a
“crank,” and for a time seemed to be even worse, he having left Richmond
clandestinely and gone North. Finally, however, he returned.) When the
Congressman from Tennessee made this remark a wave of applause swept the house.
Benjamin left Richmond on that fateful April 2, 1865, going
to Danville with President Davis and other officials. He did not at first stop
at Major Sutherlin’s house with the rest of the party. The late Dr. M. D.
Hoge, an admirer of the Secretary, to illustrate the latter’s aptness, used to
tell this story: On the morning of Sunday, April 9, 1863, the party was at
breakfast at Major Sutherlin’s. The lady of the house asked Benjamin what
church he proposed attending that day. In reply, he inquired of her where she
expected to attend services. Mrs. Sutherlin said that the party was going to
hear Dr. Hoge, who was a Presbyterian. The reverend gentleman would smile at
this point, saying he recognized the Secretary’s predicament, Cabinet
etiquette demanding that he accompany his chief, Davis, who always attended the
Episcopal church. Benjamin did not hesitate a second. Quick as a flash he
requested: “May I not have the pleasure of escorting you?” which he did.
Benjamin did not return from church with the party, but
went to the telegraph office for dispatches. Dr. Hoge says he was sitting in the
parlor when the Secretary entered the house, and as he passed the door he nodded
to the Doctor to come up to their room. He did so, and was told by the Cabinet
official that Lee had surrendered. Dr. Hoge said he did then what he had not
done since grown—he laid his head on the pillow on the bed
and cried.
That day the entire party left for the South, first by
rail, and later by horseback. Midshipman Louis P. Levy, of the Confederate Navy,
a mere youth, and a Richmond boy, was of the party. During their ride through
the South, Benjamin, rather a short man, rode an extremely tall horse, and
notwithstanding the general sadness which hung over the entire country, excited
the risibility of all beholders. He made his way to the coast of Florida and,
taking passage in an open boat, succeeded in reaching the West Indies, finally
making his way to England. Here he set up the plea that, having been born on
English territory, and never having renounced his citizenship, he remained an
Englishman. His parents were on their way to New Orleans during the War of 1812
when the ship on which they were was chased by an English vessel. They put in at
the Island of St. Croix, and here, on English soil, Judah P. Benjamin was born.
His claim of English citizenship being allowed, after a brief probation (to
allow him to become familiar with the statute law of Britain) he entered the
bar. Shortly afterwards he became a Queen’s chancellor, the only person not
born in England who ever held that position. This allows the holder to plead
before the House of Lords, which is practically the court of last resort.
On one occasion, Benjamin arguing a case before the Lords,
had just begun his brief when some one, supposedly Lord Cairns, who always
entertained an extreme dislike for him, ejaculated the single word,
“Nonsense!” The Chancellor folded up the brief he had been reading, placed
it in his bag and walked out. The Lords did what they had never done before or
since. They sent him an apology and asked him to return and finish reading his
brief. As he had a right to do, Benjamin had his clerk finish the reading and,
incidentally, won his case.
When in compliance with the mandate of his physician, he
relinquished the practice of law, he had to return to his various clients over $100,000 of retainers. In his sixteen years of practice at the English bar he
earned over $720,000. The entire bar of England tendered him a banquet upon his
retirement. He died in Paris on May 6, 1884.
The record of Benjamin in this country was truly wonderful.
When United States Senator from Louisiana he declined a seat on the bench of the
Supreme court of the United States tendered him by President Pierce. He was
counsel for the Government in the Lower California land case, for which he
received the largest fee paid for legal services in this country up to that
time.
Several years ago* the Jewish citizens of Richmond, at the
request of Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, placed a picture of Benjamin in the
gallery of that organization. Philip
Whitlock made the presentation, and Rev. Dr. Edward N. Calisch delivered
the address on the part of the donors. In the remarks of the latter occurred one
sentence that should be reproduced here. “If this man had proven false to his
trust the ignominy would have been ours; but as he was a statesman, a patriot
and a gentleman, we claim the right to shine in his reflected glory.”
*In the context of when this
was written, about 1900.
There be those who seem to delight in claiming that
Benjamin was not a Jew, because he took no prominent part in communal affairs.
It must be remembered that he was a very busy man, working often, as has been
before remarked, twenty hours a day. No less an authority than the late Dr.
Isaac M. Wise told the writer that Benjamin delivered an address in the
synagogue in San Francisco on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), 1860.* It will also
be noted that in the letter of Joseph
Goldsmith, that in the fall of ’64 when Rev. Michelbacher requested
the furloughing of the Jewish soldiers for the holidays, the suggestion was made
that the petition be taken first to Benjamin. He being Secretary of State at
that time, and the petition referring to a matter solely within the province of
the War Department, shows that those in charge of the matter considered Benjamin
one of them. Again it has been positively stated by the late Ellis Bottigheimer
that he had seen Benjamin “called up” to the reading of the Law at Beth
Ahabah Synagogue. Laying all this aside, there yet remains the racial aspect
that, being the child of Jewish parents, Judah P. Benjamin was, emphatically, a
Jew. All his life he had been known as such, though his wife, a devout Catholic,
used every effort to have him affiliate with that church. She apparently
succeeded, for on his death-bed he received the rites of her religion. This, it
is claimed, had no significance whatever, as he was unconscious at the time. As
a young man at Yale he possessed a Hebrew Psalter.
*Bertram W. Korn and Eli Evans have
analyzed this statement by Wise, and came to the conclusion that Wise was
mistaken. Benjamin was in California at the time, but never attended the
synagogue there. He did make a speech at the Church of the Advent, where he
appeared in a fundraising event for the case he was conducting at the time. His
speech was covered in the San Francisco newspapers, and it may be that Wise, who
was very elderly at the time he described this event to Ezekiel, confused a
church for a synagogue. Eli N. Evans, Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish
Confederate, Free Press, 1988, p. 95.
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