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112-677: By 1864, the Confederate government was attempting to gain control of the various operations that had developed since the beginning of the war, but often with little success. Secret legislation was put before the Confederate Congress to create an official Special and Secret Bureau of the War Department. The legislation was not enacted until March 1865 and was never implemented; however, a number of groups and operations have been referred to historically as having been part of

224-693: A book of his system of signals and On July 18. 1861, Magruder gave Norris authority to establish a system of signals on the Peninsula and across the James River. Norris set up a network which employed flags and colored balls raised on poles. Due to his efforts on the signal system Norris was commissioned as a captain. Norris also commanded the Secret Service Bureau, a unit within the Signal Corps . The Secret Service Bureau oversaw

336-470: A Catholic. Benjamin would visit them annually. While a senator, in the late 1850s he persuaded Natalie to rejoin him and expensively furnished a home in Washington for all three to live in. Natalie and their daughter soon embarked again for France. Benjamin, publicly humiliated by his failure to keep Natalie, consigned the household goods to auction. There were rumors, never substantiated, that Benjamin

448-618: A Union facility which also housed political prisoners. Thompson met with Clement Laird Vallandigham , an Ohio politician. Vallandigham, a potential presidential candidate against Lincoln, was arrested by Union General Ambrose Burnside and deported to the Confederacy. Vallandigham made his way to Canada. The Confederate Signal Corps was established in 1862. Nearly 1,200 men were in the secret service, most of whom were well-to-do and knew more than one language. Example: Alexander Campbell Rucker , brother of Colonel Edmund Winchester Rucker ,

560-501: A bounty of fifty percent of the value of any vessel destroyed by means of a new invention: The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the first section of the above entitled Act be so amended, that, in case any person or persons shall invent or construct any new machine or engine, or contrive any new method for destroying the armed vessels of the enemy , he or they shall receive fifty per centum of

672-514: A clerk for a law firm, where he began to read law , studying as an apprentice. Knowledge of French was important in practicing law in Louisiana, as the state's code was (and is still) based on French and Spanish law. To earn money, he tutored French Creoles in English; he taught the language to Natalie Bauché de St. Martin on the condition that she teach him French. In late 1832, at age 21, he

784-641: A communications network whose missions included the running of agents to and from Union territory and the forwarding of messages from Confederate officials in Richmond to contacts in Canada and Europe. William Norris finally achieved the rank of colonel on April 26, 1865, and became the Commissioner of Exchange (of prisoners of war) replacing Colonel Robert Ould . Within a week Norris was in Union hands. Norris

896-546: A courier and spy. John H. Sothoron appears to have commanded the Confederate underground in St. Mary's County, Maryland . Col. Sothoron lived near Charlotte Hall Military Academy . His son, Webster, attended the school and was reputed to be a spy. Richard Thomas (Zarvona) and David Herold were also students, although Herold's attending is disputed. Samuel Mudd , of Charles County, Maryland , seems to have lent shelter to agents and harbored John Wilkes Booth , although Mudd's role

1008-488: A daughter of a former United States consul. After the wedding, Norris returned with his bride to the family estate, Brookland, near Reisterstown, northwest of Baltimore. He and his wife had a son, named Richard, in 1852. In 1858, he became the president of the Baltimore Mechanical Bakery, an ultramodern establishment on South Howard near Pratt Street. In the winter of 1860-61 pro-Confederate sentiment

1120-603: A farewell speech in the Senate on December 31, 1860, to a packed gallery, desirous of hearing one of the South's most eloquent voices. They were not disappointed; Evans writes that "historians consider Benjamin's farewell ... one of the great speeches in American history." Benjamin foresaw that the South's departure would lead to civil war: What may be the fate of this horrible contest none can foretell; but this much I will say:

1232-526: A massacre had been feared by Southerners since the Haitian Revolution , the violent revolt known as "Santo Domingo" in the South, in which the slaves of what became Haiti killed many whites and mulattoes in the 1804 massacre , after successfully gaining independence from French control. When the anti-slavery book Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852, Benjamin spoke out against Harriet Beecher Stowe 's portrayal. He said that slaves were for

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1344-587: A number of "traditional" spies including Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Aaron Van Camp , who appear to have been members of an espionage gang during the formative period of the Confederate government. Greenhow was incarcerated at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Thomas Jordan recruited Greenhow and provided her with cypher code. Other known espionage agents include Belle Boyd and Catherine Virginia Baxley . John Surratt served as both

1456-705: A number of ports in that area of the coast would be at risk, and Norfolk, Virginia , might be threatened by land. William Norris (Confederate signal officer) William Norris (December 6, 1820 – December 29, 1896) was the Chief Signal Officer of the Confederate States Army and Chief of the Signal Bureau in Richmond . He is often confused with Dr. William S. Morris, president of the wartime Southern Telegraph Company. He

1568-828: A railroad across the Mexican isthmus near Oaxaca; this would speed passenger traffic and cargo shipments. According to The New York Times , in an 1852 speech to a railroad builders' convention, Benjamin said this trade route "belongs to New Orleans. Its commerce makes empires of the countries to which it flows." Benjamin lobbied fellow lawmakers about the project, gained funds from private New York bankers, and even helped organize construction crews. In private correspondence he warned backers of problems; project workers suffered yellow fever, shipments of construction materials hit rough seas, and actions or inaction by both U.S. and Mexican officials caused delays and increases in construction costs. Backers had invested several hundred thousand dollars by

1680-480: A reprinting of Meade's biography of Benjamin, Civil War historian William C. Davis acknowledged "cloaked suggestions that he [Benjamin] was a homosexual". Within months of his admission to the bar, Benjamin argued his first case before the Supreme Court of Louisiana and won. Still, clients were slow to come in his first years in practice. He had enough free time to compile and publish, with Thomas Slidell ,

1792-417: A senator, but could not as a justice. As an advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court, Benjamin won 13 of his first 18 cases. Judah Benjamin was sworn in as senator from Louisiana on March 4, 1853, at a brief meeting called just prior to President Pierce's inauguration. These new colleagues included Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, and Sam Houston of Texas. The slavery issue

1904-496: A smarter course of action would have been to send Benjamin abroad to win over the European governments. Butler called Benjamin's appointment "a waste of good material". Historian William C. Davis, in his volume on the formation of the Confederate government, notes, "For some there was next to nothing to do, none more so than Benjamin." The role of the attorney general in a Confederacy that did not yet have federal courts or marshals

2016-541: A specialist in commercial law , of which there was a great deal in New Orleans' busy river port—a center of international commerce and the domestic slave trade . By 1840, the city had become the fourth largest in the United States and among the wealthiest. Many of the best lawyers in the country practiced commercial law there, and Benjamin successfully competed with them. In one case, he successfully represented

2128-443: Is disputed. The Confederacy's first secret-service agent may have been James D. Bulloch . In 1861, almost immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter , Bulloch traveled to Liverpool , England , to establish a base of operations. The United Kingdom was officially neutral in the conflict between North and South, but private and public sentiment favored the Confederacy. Britain was also willing to buy cotton that could be smuggled past

2240-805: Is little indication that the theories presented in these books have been accepted by significant numbers of Civil War historians, although John D. McKenzie, in his 1997 book Uncertain Glory: Lee's Generalship Re-Examined speculates that one of the reasons that Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis did not end the war after Lincoln's re-election in 1864, when a Confederate military victory was virtually impossible, may have been to allow time for these plots to come to fruition. Literature Television Modern politics Notes Bibliography Further reading Judah P. Benjamin Judah Philip Benjamin QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884)

2352-684: Is often referred to as Major, but he attained the rank of Colonel in the closing days of the war. William Norris was born December 6, 1820, in Baltimore County, Maryland . He graduated from Yale College in 1840 at the age of nineteen and went to New Orleans to practice law. He headed to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. After his arrival he was appointed Judge Advocate to the United States Pacific Squadron. He sailed to Valparaíso , Chile in 1851 and on March 13, 1851, he married Ellen Lyles Hobson of Baltimore,

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2464-710: The Digest of the Reported Decisions of the Superior Court of the Late Territory of Orleans and the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana in 1834, which required the analysis of 6,000 cases. The book was an immediate success and helped launch Benjamin's career. When Slidell published a revised edition in 1840, he did so alone, as Benjamin was too busy litigating cases to participate. Benjamin became

2576-489: The Union blockade , which provided the South with its only real source of hard currency. Bulloch established a relationship with the shipping company of Fraser, Trenholm & Company to buy and sell Confederate cotton, using this currency to purchase arms and ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies for the war effort. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. became, in effect, the Confederacy's international bankers. Bulloch also arranged for

2688-759: The Whig Party from the time of its formation in the early 1830s. He became increasingly involved in the party, and in 1841 ran unsuccessfully for the New Orleans Board of Aldermen . The following year, he was nominated for the Louisiana House of Representatives. He was elected, though the Democrats alleged fraud: Whig supporters, to obtain the vote at a time when the state had a restrictive property qualification for suffrage , acquired licenses for carriages. A voter did not have to demonstrate that

2800-636: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln , James O. Hall , published Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln , in which they presented a circumstantial case that the Confederate Secret Service and Major Cornelius Boyle 's intelligence station at Gordonsville, Virginia were involved with the death of Lincoln. According to this scenario, the C.S.S. first planned, using Booth as its agent, to kidnap Lincoln and hold him hostage in order to pressure

2912-469: The coastwise slave trade from Virginia to New Orleans. The rebels had sailed the ship to Nassau in the Bahamas , a British colony, where those who came ashore were freed, as Britain had abolished slavery in 1834. The owners of the slaves brought suit for $ 150,000 against their insurers, who declined to pay. Benjamin made several arguments, the most prominent of which was that the slaveowners had brought

3024-511: The Benjamin marriage contract, suggests that the "St. Martin family was not terribly distraught to be rid of their young daughter" and that "Benjamin was virtually suborned to marry [Natalie], and did so without hesitation in order to further his ambitions". The marriage was not a success. By the 1840s, Natalie Benjamin was living in Paris with the couple's only child, Ninette, whom she raised as

3136-585: The British colony of Nevis ) and the former Rebecca de Mendes. Philip and Rebecca had been shopkeepers and migrated to the West Indies in search of better opportunities. Judah, the third of seven children, was given the same name as an older brother who died in infancy. Following a tradition adhered to by some Sephardi, he was named for his paternal grandfather, who performed the brit milah , or circumcision ceremony. The Benjamins encountered hard times in

3248-414: The Confederacy as military defeats made its situation increasingly desperate, he advocated freeing and arming the slaves, but his proposals were only partially accepted in the closing month of the war. When Davis fled the Confederate capital of Richmond in early 1865, Benjamin went with him. He left the presidential party and was successful in escaping from the mainland United States, but Davis was captured by

3360-441: The Confederacy developed in staunchly pro-Union East Tennessee in late 1861, and at Davis's order, Benjamin sent troops to crush it. Once it was put down, Benjamin and Davis were in a quandary about what to do about its leader, William "Parson" Brownlow , who had been captured, and eventually allowed him to cross to Union-controlled territory in the hope that it would cause Lincoln to release Confederate prisoners. While Brownlow

3472-498: The Confederacy duty-free, but walnuts could not. Once Virginia joined the Confederacy, the capital was moved to Richmond, though against Benjamin's advice—he believed that the city was too close to the North. Nevertheless, he traveled there with his brother-in-law, Jules St. Martin; the two lived in the same house throughout the war, and Benjamin probably procured the young man's job at the War Department. Although Alabama's Leroy Walker

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3584-575: The Confederate Army and to feed, supply, and arm it in a nascent country with almost no arms manufacturers. Accordingly, Benjamin saw his job as closely tied to foreign affairs, as the Confederacy was dependent on imports to supply its troops. Davis had chosen a "defensive war" strategy: the Confederacy would await invasion by the Union and then seek to defeat its armies until Lincoln tired of sending them. Davis and Benjamin worked together closely, and as Davis came to realize that his subordinate

3696-571: The Confederate Navy's torpedo specialists. The service primarily utilized electrically detonated torpedoes to protect the South's waterways. Originally commanded by Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury , known as "The Pathfinder of the Seas", Maury was succeeded by his protégé, Lt. Hunter Davidson , when Maury was sent abroad to further his experiments involving electrical torpedoes and to procure needed supplies and ships. The service operated along

3808-437: The Confederate Secret Service, coal torpedoes were hollow metal castings resembling a lump of coal. The castings were filled with powder and then secreted in the coal bunker of enemy vessels. When the coal replicas were shoveled into the fire boxes of ship's boilers, the resulting explosions either damaged or sank the ship. A hollowed out piece of wood filled with powder was used against river steamers. These could be concealed in

3920-465: The Confederate Secret Service. In April 1865, most of the official papers of the Secret Service were burned by Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin just before the Confederate government evacuated Richmond , although a few pages of a financial ledger remain. Thus, the complete story of Confederate secret operations may never be known. The Confederacy benefited from the services of

4032-478: The Confederate States will pay to the cruiser or cruisers of any private armed vessel commissioned under said act, twenty per centum on the value of each and every vessel of war belonging to the enemy, that may be sunk or destroyed by such private armed vessel or vessels, the value of the armament to be included in the estimate. In 1862, possibly due to a suggestion, the Confederate Congress enacted

4144-490: The Danish West Indies, as normal trade was blocked due to the British occupation. In 1813, the Benjamin family moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina , where they had relatives. Philip Benjamin was not financially successful there, and around 1821 moved with his family to Charleston, South Carolina . That city had the largest Jewish community in the United States and a reputation for religious tolerance. Benjamin

4256-550: The Democrats, stating they had the principles of the old-time Whig Party. He indicated, in a letter to constituents, that, as Northern Whigs had failed to vote to uphold the rights granted to Southern states in the Constitution, the Whigs, as a national party, were no more. At a state dinner given by Pierce, Benjamin first met Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, whose wife Varina described the Louisiana senator as having "rather

4368-517: The James River between Richmond and Hampton Roads, Virginia , Wilmington, North Carolina , Charleston, South Carolina , and Savannah, Georgia , among other locales. During November 1864, the Confederate House of Representatives in secret session referred a bill “for the establishment of a Bureau of Special and Secret Service” to their Committee on Military Affairs. The bureau was to have a “polytechnic corps”. The existing “torpedo corps”

4480-509: The Louisianan challenged him to a duel. Davis apologized. Benjamin, in his speeches in the Senate, took the position that the Union was a compact by the states from which any of them could secede. Nevertheless, he understood that any dissolution would not be peaceful, stating in 1856 that "dreadful will be the internecine war that must ensue". In 1859, Benjamin was elected to a second term, but allegations of involvement in land scandals and

4592-528: The North into ending the Civil War ; the code word for this operation was "Come retribution". When this plan failed to develop, they turned instead to an attempt to bomb the White House while a conference of Union officials was occurred. This plot also failed, and the Confederate Secret Service made other plans, leaving Booth to perform the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln and other U.S. officials without

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4704-656: The Sabbath. The extent of Judah's religious education is uncertain. The boy's intelligence was noted by others in Charleston, one of whom offered to finance his education. At the age of 14, in 1825, Benjamin entered Yale College, an institution popular among white Southerners; Vice President John C. Calhoun , a South Carolinian, was among its alumni. Although Benjamin was successful as a student at Yale, he left abruptly in 1827 without completing his course of study. The reasons for this are uncertain: In 1861, when Louisiana left

4816-439: The South's access to European supplies, both by blockades and by buying up supplies that the South might have secured. Other problems included drunkenness among the men and their officers and uncertainty as to when and where the expected Northern invasion would begin. Also, Benjamin had no experience of the military or of the executive branch of the government, placing him in a poor position to contradict Davis. Judah P. Benjamin,

4928-512: The Southerner's instinctive respect for the Jewish mind with a brilliant performance." Nevertheless, Benjamin faced difficulties that he could do little to solve. The Confederacy lacked sufficient soldiers, trained officers to command them, naval and civilian ships, manufacturing capacity to make ships and many weapons, and powder for guns and cannon. The Union had those things and moved to block

5040-463: The U.S. Senate seat that would become vacant on March 4, 1853. As the Louisiana legislature, responsible for electing the state's senators, met once in two years under the 1845 constitution, it was not scheduled to meet again before the seat became vacant. Some Whig newspapers thought Benjamin too young and inexperienced at forty, despite his undoubted talent, but the Whig legislative caucus selected him on

5152-820: The Union Army. Benjamin sailed to Britain, where he settled and became a barrister, again rising to the top of his profession before retiring in 1883. He died in Paris in the following year. Judah Philip Benjamin was born on August 6, 1811, in St. Croix of the Danish West Indies (today the United States Virgin Islands ), a colony that was under British occupation during the Napoleonic Wars. His parents were Sephardi Jews who married in London, Philip Benjamin (who had been born on

5264-429: The Union and Benjamin resigned as a U.S. senator, an abolitionist newspaper alleged that he had been caught as a thief at Yale. He considered bringing suit for libel but litigation was impractical. In 1901, his sole surviving classmate wrote that Benjamin had been expelled for gambling. One of his biographers, Robert Meade, considered the evidence of wrongdoing by Benjamin to be "too strong to be ignored", but noted that at

5376-408: The air of a witty bon vivant than of a great senator". The two men, both ambitious for leadership in the South and the nation, formed a relationship that Evans describes as "respectful but wary". The two had occasional differences; when in 1858, Davis, by then a Mississippi senator, was irritated by Benjamin's questioning him on a military bill and suggested that Benjamin was acting as a paid attorney,

5488-462: The argument in the Creole case represented Benjamin's personal view; rather, he was an advocate for his clients in an era when it was usual to write dramatically to distract attention from the weaker points of a case. Evans finds it remarkable and a testament to Benjamin that he could be elected to office in antebellum Louisiana, a slave society, after writing such words. Benjamin was a supporter of

5600-660: The backing of the C.S.S. Similar arguments are presented in Edward Steers Jr. 's 2005 book, Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln . In 1995, Tidwell returned to the subject with the publication of April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War , in which new evidence is examined to show that the capacity of the Confederate Secret Service for secret warfare was larger than had previously been thought. There

5712-543: The bar . He rose rapidly both at the bar and in politics, becoming a wealthy slaveholding planter who was elected to and served in both houses of the Louisiana legislature prior to his election by the legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1852. There, he was a vocal advocate of slavery. After Louisiana seceded in 1861, Benjamin resigned as senator and returned to New Orleans. He soon moved to Richmond after Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him as Attorney General . Benjamin had little to do in that position, but Davis

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5824-518: The battlefield, the secret service was re-invigorated in 1864. It was involved in the October 19, 1864 St. Albans Raid in Vermont by personnel from Canada, the plan for arson in northern cities, and future Kentucky governor Luke P. Blackburn 's biological warfare plot. In 1988, two career intelligence officers, William A. Tidwell and David Winfred Gaddy, and an amateur historian who specialized in

5936-601: The bill. Between June and December 1860 Benjamin was almost entirely absorbed in the case of United States v. Castillero , which was tried in San Francisco during the latter part of that period. The case concerned a land grant by the former Mexican government of California. Castillero had leased part of his land to British mining companies, and when American authorities ruled the grant invalid, they hired Benjamin; he spent four months in San Francisco working on

6048-434: The black as a scapegoat for social ills, and the relative absence of crises—economic and otherwise—were factors which repressed, at least temporarily, the latent anti-Jewish feeling in the South. By the early 1840s, Benjamin was wealthy from his law practice and, with a partner, bought a sugar cane plantation , Bellechasse. This purchase, and the subsequent construction of a grand house there, advanced Benjamin's ambitions;

6160-459: The carriage existed, but his license had to be accepted as evidence of ownership by election officials. The Democratic press blamed Benjamin as the strategist behind this maneuver. In 1844, the legislature voted to hold a constitutional convention, and Benjamin was chosen as a delegate from New Orleans. At the convention, Benjamin successfully opposed counting a slave as three-fifths of a human being for purposes of representation in state elections, as

6272-593: The case. The trial began in October, and Benjamin gave an address lasting six days. The local correspondent for The New York Times wrote that Benjamin, "a distinguished stranger", drew the largest crowds to the courtroom and "the Senator is making this terribly tedious case interesting". Once the case was submitted for decision in early November, Benjamin departed for the East. The court's ruling, rendered in January 1861,

6384-486: The character of the slave, and the peculiar passions which, generated by nature, are strengthened and stimulated by his condition, he is prone to revolt in the near future of things, and ever ready to conquer [i.e. obtain] his liberty where a probable chance presents itself. The court ruled for Benjamin's clients, although on other grounds. Benjamin's brief was widely reprinted, including by abolitionist groups. Historian Eli Evans, Benjamin's biographer, does not believe that

6496-420: The cheerfully competent Benjamin "a most useful member of the official family, and thought him suited for almost any post in it." In addition to his appointment as War Secretary, Benjamin continued to act as Attorney General until November 15, 1861. As War Secretary, Benjamin was responsible for a territory stretching from Virginia to Texas . It was his job, with Davis looking over his shoulder, to supervise

6608-406: The construction and secret purchase of the commerce raider CSS Alabama , as well as many of the blockade runners that acted as the Confederacy's commercial lifeline. Jacob Thompson was the Confederate commissioner in Canada. He distributed money, coordinated agents, and may have planned covert operations. He was involved with the attempt to liberate Confederate prisoners at Johnson's Island ,

6720-406: The dapper Jew, Seal-sleek, black-eyed, lawyer and epicure, Able, well-hated, face alive with life, Looked round the council-chamber with the slight Perpetual smile he held before himself Continually like a silk-ribbed fan. Behind the fan, his quick, shrewd, fluid mind, Weighed Gentiles in an old balance. — Stephen Vincent Benét , " John Brown's Body " (1928) An insurgency against

6832-591: The differences between North and South that had been thought settled by both the 1820 and 1850 compromises were reopened. The Whig Party was torn apart North from South, with many Northern Whigs joining the new Republican Party , a group pledged to oppose the spread of slavery. Benjamin continued to caucus with the remains of the Whig Party through 1854 and 1855 but, as a member of a legislative minority, he had little influence on legislation and received no important committee assignments. In May 1856, Benjamin joined

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6944-464: The fact that upstate legislators objected to both of Louisiana's senators being from New Orleans stretched the contest to 42 ballots before he prevailed. Benjamin worked to deny Douglas the 1860 Democratic presidential nomination, feeling he had turned against the South. Douglas contended that although the Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford , had stated Congress could not restrict slavery in

7056-582: The first Cabinet meeting, Benjamin counseled Davis to have the government buy 150,000 bales of cotton for shipment to the United Kingdom, with the proceeds used to buy arms and for future needs. His advice was not taken, as the Cabinet believed the war would be short and successful. Benjamin was called upon from time to time to render legal opinions, writing on April 1 to assure Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger that lemons and oranges could enter

7168-473: The first chief executive in North America to appoint a Jew to his Cabinet. Davis, in his memoirs, remarked that he chose Benjamin because he "had a very high reputation as a lawyer, and my acquaintance with him in the Senate had impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect, his systematic habits, and capacity for labor". Meade suggested that Davis wanted to have a Louisianan in his Cabinet, but that

7280-490: The fortunes of war may be adverse to our arms; you may carry desolation into our peaceful land, and with torch and firebrand may set our cities in flames ... you may do all this, and more, but you never can subjugate us; you never can convert the free sons of the soil into vassals, paying tribute to your power; you never can degrade them to a servile and inferior race. Never! Never! According to Geoffrey D. Cunningham in his article on Benjamin's role in secession, "Swept up in

7392-650: The free and easy relationships between Jew and Gentile in the antebellum South was a layer of prejudice that derived from historic anti-Semitism. The obverse of the picture of the Jew as the Biblical patriarch and apostle of freedom was the image of the Judas-traitor and the Shylock-materialist who preyed on the misfortunes of the country. But the high incidence of Jewish assimilation, the availability of

7504-423: The fuel piles of cord wood stacked along the river banks. The Dahlgren Affair – in which a failed Union cavalry raid on the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia , attempted to free Union prisoners being held there and use them to burn down the city and assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis – incensed Davis and the Confederate leadership. Combined with the Confederacy's dismal fortunes on

7616-403: The government common to them. He also signed a joint letter from Southern Representatives to their constituents, urging the formation of a confederation of the seceding states. According to a letter reportedly written by Benjamin during the crisis, he saw secession as a means of obtaining more favorable terms in a reformed Union. With Southern opinion turning in favor of secession, Benjamin made

7728-481: The most part well treated, and plantation punishments, such as whipping or branding, were more merciful than sentences of imprisonment that a white man might receive in the North for similar conduct. In early 1854, Senator Douglas introduced his Kansas–Nebraska Bill , calling for popular sovereignty to determine whether the Kansas and Nebraska territories should enter the Union as slave or free states. Depending on

7840-490: The outcome of such elections, slavery might spread to territories closed to it under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In the debate over the bill, Benjamin defended this change as returning to "the traditions of the fathers", that the federal government not legislate on the subject of slavery. He said that the South merely wished to be left alone. The bill passed, but its passage had drastic political effects, as

7952-483: The plantation, and had a reputation as a humane slaveowner. Benjamin scaled back his involvement in politics in the late 1840s, distracted by his plantation and law practice. His mother Rebecca, whom he had brought to New Orleans, died in 1847 during a yellow fever epidemic. In 1848, Benjamin was a Whig member of the Electoral College ; he voted for fellow Louisiana planter, General Zachary Taylor , who

8064-436: The planter class controlled Louisiana politics and would trust only a man who also owned substantial land and slaves. The Benjamin marriage was by then failing, and he hoped in vain that his wife would be content at the plantation. Benjamin threw his energy into improving Bellechasse, importing new varieties of sugar cane and adopting up-to-date methods and equipment to extract and process the sugar. He purchased 140 slaves to work

8176-712: The popular cries for independence, Benjamin willingly went out with the Southern tide." He and his Louisiana colleague, John Slidell , resigned from the Senate on February 4, 1861, nine days after their state declared secession. Fearful of arrest as a rebel once he left the Senate, Benjamin quickly departed Washington for New Orleans. On the day of Benjamin's resignation, the Provisional Confederate States Congress gathered in Montgomery, Alabama , and soon chose Davis as president. Davis

8288-601: The post. The New York Times reported on February 15, 1853, that "if the President nominates Benjamin, the Democrats are determined to confirm him." The new president, Franklin Pierce , a Democrat, also offered Benjamin a place on the Supreme Court. Pierce Butler suggested in his 1908 biography of Benjamin that the newly elected senator likely declined these offers not only because he preferred active politics, but because he could maintain his law practice and substantial income as

8400-546: The rest of the family moved to Charleston. He attended the Fayetteville Academy, a well-regarded school where his intelligence was recognized. In Charleston, his father was among the founders of the first Reform congregation in the United States. It developed practices that included shorter services conducted in English rather than in Hebrew. Benjamin was ultimately expelled from that community, as he did not keep

8512-424: The revolt on themselves by packing the slaves in overcrowded conditions. Benjamin said in his brief to the court: What is a slave? He is a human being. He has feelings and passion and intellect. His heart, like the heart of the white man, swells with love, burns with jealousy, aches with sorrow, pines under restraint and discomfort, boils with revenge, and ever cherishes the desire for liberty ... Considering

8624-595: The second ballot, and he was elected by the two houses over Democrat Solomon W. Downs . He was the fifth person of Jewish descent to be elected to the United States Congress, after David Levy Yulee , Lewis Charles Levin , David S. Kaufman , and Emanuel B. Hart . The outgoing president, Fillmore, offered to nominate Benjamin, a fellow Whig, to fill a Supreme Court vacancy after the Senate Democrats had defeated Fillmore's other nominees for

8736-452: The seller of a slave against allegations that the seller knew the slave had incurable tuberculosis . Although Benjamin tried some jury cases, he preferred bench trials in commercial cases and was an expert at appeals. In 1842, Benjamin had a group of cases with international implications. He represented insurance companies being sued for the value of slaves who had revolted aboard the ship Creole in 1841, as they were being transported in

8848-476: The small town of Romney . Distant from Jackson's other forces and ill-supplied, Loring and other officers petitioned the War Department to be recalled, and Benjamin, after consulting Davis, so ordered after he used the pretext of rumored Union troop movements in the area. Jackson complied but, in a letter to Benjamin, asked to be removed from the front or to resign. High-ranking Confederates soothed Jackson into withdrawing his request. The power of state governments

8960-413: The sympathy of most of Toronto’s political, social, and business elite—although few were as enthusiastic in supporting the Confederate cause as George Taylor Denison III . Canadian banks funded their activities and Toronto, Montreal, St. Catharines , and Halifax were among the bases of well-financed Confederate networks by Confederate agents and sympathizers in these cities. Several Canadian hotels across

9072-432: The territories, the people of each territory could pass legislation to bar it. This position was anathema to the South. Benjamin praised Douglas's opponent in his re-election bid, former US Representative Abraham Lincoln , for at least being true to his principles as an opponent of the expansion of slavery, whereas Benjamin considered Douglas to be a hypocrite. Benjamin was joined in his opposition to Douglas by Senator Davis;

9184-681: The territory, including the Queen's Hotel, Toronto and St. Louis hotel in Quebec City , acted as informal headquarters for Confederate Secret Service activities. The Confederacy knew it was in trouble from the beginning of war without its own Navy. The few ships owned privately that could be converted to military service were no match for the Union Navy. On May 21, 1861, the Confederate Congress enacted an amendment to their May 6, 1861 Declaration of War which provided that [T]he government of

9296-424: The time Benjamin left Yale, he was only 16 years old. After a brief return to Charleston, Benjamin moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. According to Rabbi Bertram W. Korn 's volume on that city's Jews, he "arrived in New Orleans in 1828, with no visible assets other than the wit, charm, omnivorous mind and boundless energy with which he would find his place in the sun". After working in a mercantile business, he became

9408-499: The time the project died after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Benjamin spent the summer of 1851 abroad, including a visit to Paris to see Natalie and Ninette. He was still away in October 1851, when the Whigs nominated him for the state Senate . Despite his absence, he was easily elected. When the new legislature met in January 1852, Benjamin emerged as one of the leading Whig candidates for election to

9520-447: The time to deal with plantation business. Benjamin's view that slavery should continue was based in his belief that citizens had a right to their property as guaranteed by the Constitution. As Butler put it, "he could no more see that it was right for Northern people to rob him of his slave than it would be for him to connive at horse stealing". He avoided the arguments of some that the slaves were inferior beings, and that their position

9632-604: The two were so successful that the 1860 convention was not able to nominate anyone and split into Northern and Southern factions. The Northerners backed Douglas while Southern delegates chose Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Despite their agreement in opposing Douglas, Benjamin and Davis differed on some race issues: in May, Benjamin voted for a bill to aid Africans liberated by U.S. naval vessels from illegal slave ships, in order to return them to their native continent from Key West . Davis and many other Southerners opposed

9744-504: The value of each and every such vessel that may be sunk or destroyed, by means of such invention or contrivance... This attracted the attention of entrepreneurs. Horace Lawson Hunley organized a group of investors to finance the submarine H. L. Hunley that bears his name, hoping to profit from the bounties. Private individuals with engineering experience such as E. C. Singer, C. Williams, and Zere McDaniel developed and patented new torpedoes and fuses . Developed by Thomas Courtenay of

9856-561: Was Secretary of War, Davis—a war hero and former U.S. War Secretary—considered himself more qualified and gave many orders himself. When the Confederates were unable to follow up their victory at the First Battle of Manassas by threatening Washington, Walker was criticized in the press. In September, Walker resigned to join the army as a brigadier general, and Davis appointed Benjamin in his place. Butler wrote that Davis had found

9968-567: Was a scout and spy who worked with Norris. The Torpedo Bureau, authorized on October 31, 1862, and commanded by Brigadier General Gabriel Rains , was charged with the production of various explosive devices, including land mines , naval mines , and " coal torpedoes " (bombs disguised as chunks of coal, intended to destroy boilers). Created at the same time as the Torpedo Bureau, the Submarine Battery Service were

10080-399: Was admitted to the bar. Early the following year, Benjamin married Natalie, who was Catholic and from a wealthy French Creole family. As part of her dowry, she brought with her $ 3,000 and two female slaves, aged 11 and 16 (together worth about $ 1,000). Even before the marriage, Natalie St. Martin had scandalized New Orleans society by her conduct. William De Ville, in his journal article on

10192-477: Was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to Britain at the end of the American Civil War , an English barrister . Benjamin was the first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in North America and the first to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced his faith. Benjamin

10304-475: Was another flaw in the Confederacy and a problem for Benjamin. Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown repeatedly demanded arms and the return of Georgian troops to defend his state. North Carolina Governor Henry T. Clark also wanted troops returned to him to defend his coastline. After Cape Hatteras , on the North Carolina's coast, was captured, Confederate forces fell back to Roanoke Island . If it fell,

10416-538: Was born to Sephardic Jewish parents from London who had moved to Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies when it was occupied by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars . Seeking greater opportunities, his family immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina . Benjamin attended Yale College but left without graduating. He moved to New Orleans, where he read law and passed

10528-600: Was confirmed by the Senate, but he declined the appointment as the salary of $ 3,500 was too small. The following year, Benjamin assisted the United States Attorney in New Orleans in prosecuting American adventurers who had tried to spark a rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba, but two trials both ended in hung juries . Benjamin became interested in strengthening trade connections between New Orleans and California, and promoted an infrastructure project to build

10640-421: Was done in federal elections. His position prevailed, and slaves were not counted at all for electoral purposes in Louisiana state elections. According to Evans, his "tact, courtesy, and ability to find compromises impressed the political elders in all corners of the state". Rabbi Myron Berman, in his history of Jews in Richmond, describes the attitude of antebellum white Southerners toward Jews: Hidden beneath

10752-554: Was elected U.S. President. He and other Louisianans accompanied President-elect Taylor to Washington for his inauguration, and Benjamin attended a state dinner given by outgoing president James K. Polk . In 1850, Millard Fillmore , who succeeded Taylor after his death earlier that year, appointed Benjamin as judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California . He

10864-581: Was held in detention in Richmond but eventually cleared of charge. On June 30, 1865, Norris swore allegiance to the United States. Norris and his family returned to Brookline near Reisterstown. After the war Norris considered going to Chile to set up a signal corps for the military there. In 1866 Norris wrote a letter to the lawyer defending John H. Surratt from complicity in the Lincoln assassination . Norris absolved Surratt of any involvement and offered to testify in his behalf. In 1874 his eyewitness account of

10976-488: Was impotent and that Natalie was unfaithful. Benjamin's troubled married life has led to speculation that he was gay . Daniel Brook, in a 2012 article about Benjamin, suggests that early biographies read as though "historians are presenting him as an almost farcically stereotypical gay man and yet wear such impervious heteronormative blinders that they themselves know not what they write". These conjectures were not given scholarly weight until 2001, when, in an introduction to

11088-513: Was impressed by his competence and appointed him as Secretary of War. He was a firm supporter of Davis, who reciprocated that loyalty by promoting him to Secretary of State in March 1862, while Benjamin was being criticized for the Confederate defeat at Roanoke Island . As Secretary of State, Benjamin attempted to gain official recognition for the Confederacy by France and the United Kingdom, but his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. To preserve

11200-402: Was in Southern custody, he stated that he expected, "no more mercy from Benjamin than was shown by his illustrious predecessors towards Jesus Christ". Benjamin had difficulty in managing the Confederacy's generals. He quarreled with General P.G.T. Beauregard , a war hero since his victory at First Manassas. Beauregard sought to add a rocket battery to his command, an action that Benjamin stated

11312-629: Was in a brief remission as much of the country wished to accept the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement. When the Senate was not in session, Benjamin remained in Washington, D.C., conducting a lucrative practice including many cases before the Supreme Court, then conveniently located in a room of the Capitol. His law partners in New Orleans took care of his firm's affairs there. About this time Benjamin sold his interest in Bellechasse, lacking

11424-399: Was in the Confederate Secret Service. Major William Norris was their commander. Norris may have worked for Braxton Bragg . On April 26, 1865, Norris took the position of the Commissioner of Prisoner Exchange Robert Ould . Ould may have been the civilian liaison to the corps, and Bragg the military liaison, with both reporting to Jefferson Davis or Judah Benjamin . Thomas Nelson Conrad

11536-498: Was learned in his faith but not a successful businessman; Rebecca earned money for the family by operating a fruit stand near the harbor. Phillip Benjamin was a first cousin and business partner of Moroccan-Jewish trader Moses Elias Levy , the father of David Levy Yulee . Levy also immigrated to the United States, in the early 1820s. Judah and two siblings were boarded with relatives in Fayetteville for about 18 months after

11648-485: Was loyal to the Confederacy and to Davis personally, he returned complete trust in Benjamin. Varina Davis wrote, "It was to me a curious spectacle, the steady approximation to a thorough friendliness of the President and his War Minister. It was a very gradual rapprochement, but all the more solid for that reason." In his months as War Secretary, Benjamin sent thousands of communications. According to Evans, Benjamin initially "turn[ed] prejudice to his favor and play[ed] on

11760-409: Was not authorized by law. He was most likely relaying Davis's views, and when challenged by Beauregard, Davis backed Benjamin, advising the general to "dismiss this small matter from your mind. In the hostile masses before you, you have a subject more worthy of your contemplation". In January 1862, Stonewall Jackson 's forces had advanced in western Virginia, leaving troops under William W. Loring at

11872-483: Was ordained by God: Evans ascribes this to Benjamin not being raised as a slaveowner, but coming to it later in life. Benjamin joined in a widespread view of white Southerners that the African American would not be ready for emancipation for many years, if ever. They feared that freeing the slaves would ruin many and lead to murders and rapes by the newly liberated of their former masters and mistresses. Such

11984-543: Was so minimal that initial layouts for the building housing the government in Montgomery allotted no space to the Justice Department. Meade found the time that Benjamin spent as attorney general to be fruitful, as it allowed him the opportunity to judge Davis's character and to ingratiate himself with the president. Benjamin served as a host, entertaining dignitaries and others Davis had no time to see. At

12096-657: Was strong in Baltimore. On the 18th and 19 April 1861, the Pratt Street Riot took place in Baltimore. Norris made no secret of his southern sympathies and with the outbreak of war he and his family left for Virginia. There he volunteered as a civilian aide on the staff of Brigadier General John Bankhead Magruder . After Magruder sent Norris to learn signals in Norfolk under Captain Milligan, Milligan gave Norris

12208-501: Was substantially for his clients, but not satisfied, they appealed. They lost the case entirely to an adverse decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, three justices dissenting, the following year. Benjamin was by then a Confederate Cabinet officer, and could not argue the case. His co-counsel filed his brief with the court. By the time Benjamin returned to the east, the Republican candidate, Lincoln, had been elected president, and there

12320-405: Was sworn in as provisional Confederate States President on February 18, 1861. At home in New Orleans for, it would prove, the last time, Benjamin addressed a rally on Washington's Birthday , February 22, 1861. On February 25, Davis appointed Benjamin, still in New Orleans, as attorney general ; the Louisianan was approved immediately and unanimously by the provisional Congress. Davis thus became

12432-455: Was talk, in Louisiana and elsewhere, of secession from the Union. The New Orleans Picayune reported that Benjamin favored secession only in the last resort. On December 23, 1860, another Louisiana periodical, the Delta , printed a letter from Benjamin dated December 8 stating that, as the people of the North were of unalterable hostility to their Southern brethren, the latter should depart from

12544-558: Was to be incorporated into the bureau. New inventions were to be encouraged. Confederate agents operated around Halifax , Quebec City , Niagara , Toronto , and (especially) Montreal . Confederate agents operating in Canada were considerable enough to be widely tolerated. For example, in Toronto , Southern agents operated freely and openly with little to no concern from local authorities who were governed by British North America’s official policy of neutrality. Indeed, Southerners enjoyed

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