BENJAMIN. JvoAii PttiLir (1811-84). An American lawyer and statesman, one of the lead ers of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. IIe was born of English-Jewish parentage, in the island of Saint Croix, West Indies; re moved with his parents to Wilmington, N. C., in IS15; studied for three years at Yale, and in 1832 was admitted to the bar in New Orleans, where two years later he published a valuable work, entitled Digest of Reported Decisions of the Supreme Court of the Late Territory of Orleans and of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. IIe soon acquired an cxiensive practice; became a member of the law firm of Slidell, Benjamin, and Conrad in 1840; made a celebrated argu ment in connection with the 'Creole Case' (q.v.j in 1841, and in 1347 was retained as counsel by time United States commission appointed to ad judicate the Spanish laud-titles in California. In 1848 he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, and subsequently spent much of his time in Washington. During President Pierce's administration lie dee]ined all appoint nmeut to a place on the Supreme Court bench. He was United States Senator from Louisiana from 1852 to IS61, and as such took a prominent part, on the Southern side, in the various de bates over slavery extension, the organization of the Territories, 'popular sovereignty,' and 'State rights.' In February, 1861, he withdrew from time Senate, and soon afterwards was ap pointed Attorney-General in President Davis's provisional Cabinet. On the resignation of L. Pope
Walker, in August, he became Secretary of War, but soon resigned, owing to Congressional charges of incompetence and negligence, and in February, 1862, accepted the position of Secre tary of Stale. In this capacity he served \yith remarkable energy and elrciency until the close of the war, working habitually from S A.5I. until 2 A.M. each day, and soon became generally known as 'the brains of the Confederacy.' Upon tlie surrender of Lee at Appomattox. Ben jamin lied from Richmond, together with the other officials of the Confederacy, and after undergoing many hardships finally reached Eng land in September, 1865. He then entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, London: was called to the English liar in June, 1866; and in 1868 pub lished A Treatise on time Lame of Sale of Personal Property, which eanme to be regarded as a legal classic in England. Benjamin gradually ac quired an enormous practice, at trst in nisi pries cases, amid afterwards in cases of appeal before the Privy Council and the House of Lords; but in ISS3 he was forced by failing health to retire from the bar. Many of his speeches in the Sen ate and a number of his arguments before the courts in important cases in both America and England have been published.