photo #9357810

Judah P. Benjamin was also blamed for President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. He hid for a short time in Gamble Mansion in Florida, before fleeting to England, also in 1865. During the dangerous journey, he had to disguise himself multiple times to avoid Northern capture.Benjamin reached England safely in 1865. He lived the rest of his life as a successful lawyer in England, getting appointed to the Queen’s Counsel in 1872, the highest rank for jurists. He died in 1884 under the name Philippe Benjamin in Paris. In one last insult, Bauché had priests administer the last rites of the Catholic Church to Benjamin before his death. Benjamin’s life as a high-ranking Confederate Jew was remarkable. His Judaism became an excuse for condemnation from both sides. He was blamed for the South’s failures by the Confederacy and for the South’s victory by the Union. He owned slaves, despite this being antithetical to his Judaism, which he held dear. He served loyally as Jefferson Davis’s right-hand man, possibly because Davis knew there was no threat of a Jew overthrowing him as President of the Confederacy. Benjamin never tried to hide or downplay his Jewishness. In one Senate hearing, a senator from Ohio attacked Benjamin for his stance on slavery, calling him an “Israelite in Egyptian clothing.” Benjamin replied: “It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain.”