Jewish Confederate Benjamin Signs Legal Document in Antebellum New Orleans

Future Confederate Secretary of State and Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana signed this legal document in a case between his client, commission merchant James Watt, and John P. Phillips, the captain of the Mississippi River steamboat Yellowstone.

JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Manuscript Document Signed, Consent for Commission, May 8, 1835, New Orleans, Louisiana. 1 p., 7.75ʺ x 13ʺ. Expected folds; toning; tape repairs to some fold tears.

Complete Transcript
James Watt
vIn the District Court
John P. Phillips
We consent that a commission issue in this case to take the testimony of witnesses on behalf of the plaintiff at Vicksburgh Mississippi
New Orleans 8th May 1835.
Benjamin / for plff
Isaac T. Preston / atty for deft

Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884) was born in the Danish West Indies to Sephardic Jewish parents from London. His family immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina. Benjamin attended Yale College but left before graduating. He moved to New Orleans, gained admission to the bar, and began a legal practice. He also became a wealthy planter and slaveowner. He served in both the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana Senate, before the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1852. He served from 1853 until his resignation in February 1861. He moved to Richmond when Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him as Attorney General. In September 1861, Davis appointed Benjamin as Confederate Secretary of War, and in March 1862, as Confederate Secretary of State, a position he held until the collapse of the Confederacy in May 1865. As Confederate Secretary of State, he attempted to gain recognition for the Confederacy from Great Britain and France but was unsuccessful. He escaped Richmond in early 1865 and sailed to Great Britain, where he became a successful barrister before retiring in 1883.

Isaac T. Preston (1793-1852) was born in Virginia and graduated from Yale College in 1812 as class valedictorian. He served as a captain in the 35th Infantry during the War of 1812. He resumed legal studies in Norfolk, Virginia, before settling in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he began a law practice. He became proficient at litigating Spanish land claims. He served as Attorney General of Louisiana from 1824 to 1828 and again from 1843 to 1846. He also served as a Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1850 until his death. He died in the explosion of the steamboat St. James on Lake Pontchartrain, which was engaged in a race from Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans.

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