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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—LouisianaJudah Philip BENJAMIN
(1811-1884)
Senate Years of Service:
1853-1855; 1855-1857; 1857-1861Party: Whig; Opposition;
DemocratBENJAMIN, Judah Philip, a
Senator from Louisiana; born on the Island of St. Croix, Danish
West Indies (now Virgin Islands), August 6, 1811; immigrated to
Savannah, Ga., in 1816 with his parents, who later settled in
Wilmington, N.C.; attended the Fayetteville Academy, Fayetteville,
N.C., and Yale College; moved to New Orleans, La., in 1831 and
taught school; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1832 and
commenced practice in New Orleans; elected to the lower house of
the state legislature in 1842 and served until 1844; member of the
State constitutional convention in 1845; elected as a Whig to the
United States Senate in 1853; reelected as a Democrat in 1859 and
served from March 4, 1853, to February 4, 1861, when he withdrew;
seat declared vacant by Senate resolution on March 14, 1861;
chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-fourth through
Thirty-sixth Congresses); appointed Attorney General under the
provisional government of the Confederate States, February 1861;
appointed Acting Secretary of War of the Confederate States in
August 1861 and served until November 1861, when he was appointed
Secretary of War; served in this capacity until February 1862, when
he resigned to accept the appointment as Secretary of State in the
Cabinet of President Jefferson Davis, in which capacity he served
until the end of the war; moved to Great Britain in 1865; studied
English law at Lincoln’s Inn, London, was admitted to the bar
in that city in 1866, and practiced law there; engaged in newspaper
and magazine work; received the appointment of Queen’s
counsel in 1872; retired in 1883 from active practice and public
life; moved to Paris, France, and died there May 6, 1884; interment
in Pere la Chaise Cemetery.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American
Biography; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American
Law; Evans, Eli N. Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish
Confederate. New York: The Free Press, 1988; Osterweis, R.G.
Judah P. Benjamin, Statesman of the Lost Cause. New York:
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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