The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-05-10
DEATH OF JUDAH p. BENJAMIN.
The Last of the Famous Lawyer and
Confederate Secretary.

Confederate Secretary.
As printed in yesterdays News.
Judah P Benjamin, the distin guished
lawyer and advocate and ex-member Of
the Government of the Southern Confed-
eracy is dead.
Mr. Benjamin died in his apartments
in the Avenue Jena, Paris.
A London telegram says that nearly
four years ago Mr.. Benjamin had bad
fall in Paris from a tram-car, on the road
running parallel to the Seine. Forget
ting that he was not quite as young as
when last in New Orleans, he jumped, as
had formerly been his habit when resi-
dent in the Crescent City" from the
car while it was still in motion, and, los
/ ing his feet, he held on to the rail- and
was dragged many yards, dislocating his
shoulder and breaking two or three ribs.
From the shock thus sustained Mr., Ben
iamin never en- tirely recovered, and one
/ of the worst effects resulting from the
/ accident was that it brought back an in
ternal disorder, some symptoms of which
.
in Virginia, during the American civil
war.
MR.. BENJAAuN's CAREER.
It was in 1911 that Mr.. Benjamin first
saw the light upon the Danish Island Of
! St. Croix There he remained with his
parents for four years until the war was
over, when his parents made their way
to Charleston, in South Carolina, and
/ thence, a little later on, to New Orleans
In that city Mr.. Benjamin's boyhood was
spent, until, in 1929, he was sent, as
student, to Yale College in Connecticut
He returned in 1882 to New Orleans, and
was Immediately called to the bar. 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 Sumner-who, as regards pO-
litical opinions, stood to Mr.. Benjamin in
the relation Of antipOdean opposition
that the Senator from louisiana was the
most eloquent orator in the Union.
A description of the services rendered
by Mr.. Benjamin to the Confederate
States during those five years of unparal-
lelled trial and effort between 1851 and
1865, which saw the "Stars and bars
floating above the Capitol of Richmond,
Virginia, would fill a volume. Many
Southerners had done far more than Mr..
Benjamin to bring 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 it forever had sent an electric thrill
throughout the whole civilized world
With the conclusion of the civil war,
Mr.. Benjamin had to effect his escape
from Richmond, and he succeeded in
making his way to the coast of Florida.
After experiencing strange adventures in
a strange craft laden with sponges, on
board of which he put to sea, Mr.. Benia-
min landed safely in England, to find
that his fame as a lawyer and states
man had preceded him, and that the
/ COnfederacy which he served so warmly
had etill some friends. Mainly by the
advice and assistance of the late Chief
Justice Pollock, Mr.. Benjamin contrived
to get called to the English bar without
losing three years in keeping terms. He
was % years when he first put on the
wig and gown of an English barrister,
and the tremendous experience through
which he had already passed would have
exhausted the energy of most public men.
Yet the history Of the English bar will
hereafter have no prouder story to tell
/ than that of the marvellous advance of
Mr.. Benjamin from the humble position
he occupied as a Junior in 1866 to the
front rank of his profession in 1888.