Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-03-02

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jamin's boyhood was spent until. in 1899.
he was sent as student to Yale College,
in Connecticut. He returned in 1882 to
New Orleans and was Immediately called
to the bar, at time when the Southern
states Of the Union boosted that the advo-
Gates sent by them to plead before the SUI
preme Court of the United States at
washington were not inferior to such
giants Of the North of Webster, Writ,
| Plnckney and Choate. 1t was not long be-
lore MI. BenJamin's voice, as clear and
sllVery then as 1t remained TO the last in
Westminster Hall, was frequently heard
pleading before Chief Justice Marshall
! and Storey in the capitol at Washington.
He was sent little later by the State of
! Louisiana to the United States Senate at
| Washington, and after the death Of Web
ster, Clay, Calhoun and Silas Wright it
| was the opinion of many, including the
late Charles SUMMERTIME, as regards
| political opinions, stood TO Mr. Benjamin in
the relation Of antipOdean opposition
| that the Senator from Louisiana was the
most eloquent orator in the Union.
This is not the time nor the place to es-
say description OF the services rendered
by Mr.. Benjamin to the Confederate States
| during those five years ofunparalleled trial
and effort between 1861 and 1866 which
saw the ''stars and bars" of the rebellion
| floating above the capitol of Richmond, in
! Virginia. Many SOutherners had been far
more guilty than Mr.. Benjamin in bring
| ing on the secession of the Southern
| States; but when once the fatal step was
taken no man served the cause of the
| South more superbly in the Cabinet than
the orator whose last speech in the United
| states Senate before taking leave of 1t for
| ever had sent an electric thrill throughout
| the whole civilized world. "Have you read
Benjamin's speechg" asked Sir George
/ COrnewall Lewis of Lord Sherbrooke, when
| the echoes of that great rhetorical effort
had reached this country-''it is better
| than our Benjamin could have DONE" If.
as some may perhaps think, Sir George
| Cornewall Lewis gave Mr.. Benjamin
undue praise in ranking him as an orator
! above Lord BeacOnstield, il will be re-
| membered that i'll such fiery and exciting
| times as existed in the United States
when Abraham Lincoln was first elected
President, Orators-tO quote fine express
| sion employed by Mr.. Gladstone in his
book on ''Homer''-''take up from their
audiences in vapOr what they return to
| them in food" The labOrs sustained by
| Mr.. Benjamin at Richmond as a member
of Mr.. Jefferson Davis Cabinet between
! 1861 and 1860, first in the capacity of At
! torney General, then Of Minister of War,
and finally of Secretary of State, have
| never yet been adequately told. If, how
ever, there be truth in the maxim of Nine.
de Genlls-"TOt on tard tout Sc sait''-a
| time may come when MIR. Beniamin's dis
patches TO Messrs. Mason and Slidell. the
ENJOYS sent by the Confederate Govern
ment to London and Paris, will see the
light, To say that they will confer addi-
tl0nal lustre upon man who, by the
brilliancy of his career at the English bar
since 1866, has thrown even his earlier an
tecedents into the shade would be not
more than the truth. With the conclusion
OF the civil war Mr.. Benjamin had to effect
his escape from Richmond, and, more for
tunate than his chief, Mr.. Jefferson
Davis, he succeeded in making his way
to the coast of Florida. After experience
ing strange adventures in small craft
laden with spOngeS, on board of which he
put to sea, Mr.. benjamin tlanded safely in
this country, to find that his fame as
lawyer and statesmanhad preceded him
and that the COnfederacy which he served
so warmly had still some friends. Mainly
by the advice and assistance of the late
Chief Justice Pollock, Mr.. Benjamin con.
trived to get called to the English bar
without losing three years in keeping
terms. He was fifty-fve years old when
he first put on the wig and crown of an
English barrister, and the tremendous eX-
periences through which he had already
passed would have exhausted the energy of
most public men, With the exception of
a comparatively small sum lodged by him
in the hands OF Messrs. Oyerend & Cur
ney, Mr.. Benjamin had nothing where
with to make new start in life, and he
had come, moreover, at a mature age to
an old country, where to rise Antaus-Iike
from the ground is a thousand times more
difficult than upon that young, eXuberant
continent which he had left behind him.
The history of the English bar will here
after have no prOuder story to tell than
that of the marvellous advance of Mr.. Ben
jamin from the humble position he Qccu-
pied as Junior in 1866 to the front rank
of his profession i'll 1883. Adversely, how
ever, had not yet done with him when she
sent him, broken indeed in fortune, but
endowed with ineXtinguishable vitality
and hope, to this country al
the end of 1885. In the follow
ing year there came that memora-
bic .'Black Friday" which is not yet for
gotten in city circles, and was caused by
the sudden suspension of Messrs. Overend !
4 Quincy, BY the fall of that great house
Mr.. Benjamin lost the sum Of f3,000-all !
that he possessed on earth-and had TO
cast about for something to do until his
book on the 'tSales of Personal Property
was completed. Having a wife and daugh- |
ter to maintain in Paris and himself in
London, he prepared, with that easy
adaptability to circumstances which has |
of his versatile and many-sided career, to !
sustain himself for awhile by writing FOR |
the press, ! t was under these circum- |
stances that he temporarily Joined the |
staff of the Daily Ieledraph and con- |
tributed for many months a series of bril- |
liant leading articles to the columns of /
this journal. The publication of his book |
upon personal Property brought him |
Immediately into notice; nor could any |
better evidence Of his quick and incisive /
diagnosis be adduced than the fact that i'm |
the great and tangled wilderness of Brit |
ish Jurisprudence he should so readily |
have discerned one tract which was as vet /
unmapped. Shortly after its publication, |
Baron Martin, when taking his seat one |
morning upon the bench. asked to have |
Mr.. BenjamiU's work handed to him.
"Never heard of it, my lord" was the an
sWer of the Chief Clerk. ''NeVer heard of |
itsN calculated Sir Samuel Martin; 9mind |
that never take my seat here again with
out that book by my side,u 1t was soon
after this date that, speaking to one Of |
Mr., Heniaminis most intimate friends, the
same able Judge pronounced the new Or
nament of the English bar to be s'the
greatest advocate that he had heard since
Scarlett." 1t is doubtful however, wheth-
er Mr.. Benjamin would ever have been so
effective before British jury or in the at
mosphere Where Scarlet was omnipotent
as ne was III Ine Appear courts OF the
House of Lords and the PriYy Council. To
these courts he confined himself exclu-
siyely towards the end of his English ca
reer, and ii may be d9pbEed whether any
Lord Chancellor, assisted by noble and
learned assessors, ever heard an advocate
plead before them In whom a compre-
hensive knowledge of Jurisprudence,
singular force and lucidity of reasoning,
and the most felicitous neatness and flu
ency oI illustration and exposition were
more happily combined. 1t was of Mr..
Benjamin that a brother barrister said:
|'He makes you see the very bale of cot
ton ihat he is describing as it lies upon
the Wharf at New Orleans.p Many law
yers will doubtless be ready at this mo,
meGt 30 recall Mr. Renlamilis great and
triumphant argument on behalf Of the
Captain of the Franconia. Others again.
who have heard him plead in New Orleans
and Washington, will remember that he
was as well acquainted with the French
and Spanish as with the English language.
Sufficient, however, will it be for us at
this moment TO hope, in the name of the
bar which has watched his brilliant and
brave career, that many years of WELL
earned repOse may be Mr.. Benjamin's por-
ton in the beautiful residence which he
has built himself in Paris, and in the CEN