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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—LouisianaBENJAMIN, Judah Philip
(1811—1884)
Senate Years of Service:
1853-1855; 1855-1857; 1857-1861
Party:
Whig; Opposition; Democrat
BENJAMIN, 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; 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
; 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.
Butler, Pierce. Judah P. Benjamin
. 1907. Reprint, with new introduction by Bennett H. Wall. New York: Chelsea House, 1980.
Evans, Eli N. Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate
. New York: Free Press, 1988.
Gorin, Robert Murray, Jr. “The Anglo-American Conservative Response in the Middle Nineteenth Century: The Political Record of Judah P. Benjamin and Benjamin Disraeli.” Ph.D. dissertation, St. Louis University, 1980.
Gruss, Louis. “Judah Philip Benjamin.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly
19 (October 1936): 964-1068.
Guest, Anthony Gordon, ed. Benjamin’s Sale of Goods
. London: Sweet Maxwell, 1974. Based on Benjamin’s Treatise on the Sale of Personal Property with References to the French Code and Civil Law.
Hagan, Horace H. “Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884).” In Eight Great American Lawyers
, pp. 206-53. 1923. Reprint. Littleton, CO: Fred B. Rothman Co., 1987.
Kaplan, Benjamin. “Judah Philip Benjamin.” In Jews in the South
, edited by Leonard Dinnerstein and Mary Dale Palsson, pp. 75-88. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
Kohler, Max James. Judah Benjamin: Statesman and Jurist
. Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1905.
___. “Judah P. Benjamin: Statesman and Jurist.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society
12 (1904): 63-85.
Korn, Bertram W. “Judah P. Benjamin as a Jew.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society
38 (March 1949): 153-71.
Krause, Allen. “The Enigmatic Judah Benjamin.” Midstream
24 (October 1978): 17-20.
Meade, Robert Douthat. “Judah P. Benjamin.” Civil War Times Illustrated
10 (June 1971): 10-20.
___. Judah P. Benjamin: Confederate Statesman
. 1943. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Neiman, Simon I. Judah Benjamin
. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1963.
Osterweis, Rolli. Judah P. Benjamin, Statesman of the Lost Cause
. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933.
Rywell, Martin. Judah Benjamin, Unsung Rebel Prince
. Asheville, NC: Stephens Press, 1948.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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