The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-01-24
p. j. BENJAMIN.

some of the most eminent men of the late Con-
federacy in the filthy crime of stealing The pub
lie money at the breaking up of the govern
ment and when the brave and veteran soldiers
of the Confederate army were barefooted and
hungry, has already recoilsd upon its invent
ors. 1t was as mean mockery to make such
a charge against the remarkable man whose
name heads this article as against the ilustri-
Gus late president himself.
Mr.. Benjamin, although born on Canadian
soil, is essentially an American. When boy,
in New Orleans, he was placed in the office Of
public notary named Stringer to engross.
law, and took his place in the Office of the late
Hon. John Slidell with that view. At the age
of 10 he applied for emancipation from the
years Of minority, and was emancipated that
he might come to the bar. Other professional
men climb, other lawyers step by step ascend
the ladder to eminence, and subtle minds and
profound learning in many instances in that
very era and at that bar had toiled and strug-
gled to acquire the positions they held. There
was no bar in America, nor probably else
where, that could match in aggregate ability
the eloquent and able jurists of New Orleans.
Edward Livingston had just passed off the
professional stage, and, indeed, the stage OF
life, but its acknowledged leader was, as a
lawyer, greater than Liyingston-John r.
Grymes. MIR. Grymes was without ambition,
without desire for eminence, professional or
political. The former he did not seek, and
the latter he would not accept. There
were other great men around him who had
never deviated into politics. Christian Rose
Inns had come to Louisiana from his native
Germany, as a redemptoner. that is to say,
one TO be delivered on his arrival into servl-
tude to pay the price Of his passage. He was
young, temperate, of good morals and ambi-
tious, and although without extraordinary
natural gifts, supplied by effort what nature
had denied him, and won, and long enjoyed a
leading place in the first rank of lawyers.
Etenno Mezereau, massive and profound
thinker and jurist, jealous and imperious, a,
some old king that had lost his realm, kept his
solitary place and, at long intervals, electrified
the bar and public with some great mastery
forensic argument, which became a nine days
sensation. Pierre Soule, a Frenchman OF
brilliant talents and attainnents, who became
he American minister to St. Cloud in tn e
days of the second Napoleonic empire who,
we believe, challenged Louis Napoleon on the
ground of some supposed political sleight and
whose son fought the duke of Alba, on some
supposed sociatone, often electrified the peo-
pie by his powerful orations, and charmed the
bar with his tact and eloquence as an advo-
cate. Randall Hunt, the much elder and far
ADLER brother of the present secretary of the
navy, was also one Of the eminent lawyers OF
that period. He yet lives, and his talents as
a criminal law advocate. have never been ex-
celled. These, and others of the rank Of these
distinguished men, made tine bar of louisiana
an association of intellectual giants against
whom the boldest and most gifted might hesi-
tate to entrust their professional ventures.
But every man Of them by slow and
measured strides had won his way
to the eminence he enjoyed, and
shed luster on the Commonwealth
Of which he was an honored citizen. 1t re-
nained for J. P. Benjamin, at the age of 10,
without the trace of any beard, or even the
rpeness of adolescence, to emerge from the
Office ola public notary and within few
months, front to front with the foremost OF
these, dispute the palm of precedence at the
bar of Louisiana. Before he was of age it be-
came the i,igious rule among the people, if
Mr.. Grimes were employed on one side of an
important case, to employ Mr.. Benjamin on
the other. On many an occasion the court
rooms were crowded with eager and expectant
nul;itudes assembled, not always in cases Of
public interest, to witness the combat Of these
gladiators and be strengthened and refreshed
by their powerful eloquence and brilliant ar
guments. Courts and juries, alike, were often
perplexed, and the justice Of a cause left in
doubt al last by the consummate genious that
could create a mental apparition for profe.
sional use, which the laws of logic refused to
supply, and leave the keenest minds who heard
Mr.. Grymes Fever played orao he put all
appearance of effoet under foot. He would
rise in a cause and in the SIMPLEST words stale