Judah P. Benjamin =-the Jew Who Refused a Supreme Court Po-st
By JACOB R. MARCUS
Director, American Jewish
Archives
During the administration of
President Franklin Pierce, 1853-
1857, U.S. Senator Judah P. Ben-
jamin of Louisiana. a Jew, refused
an appointment to the United
States Supreme Court. Why did he
decline the honor? What manner of
Jew was he? Many of the answers
to these questions may be found at
the American Jewish Archives on
the Cincinnati campus of the He-
brew Union College-Jewish Insti-
tute of Religion.
Judah Philip Benjamin was born
in 1811 in the Brills!' West Indies.
During the Napoleonic Wars his
parents moved to Charleston, S. C.
They were poor and could do little
for him, yet he managed to go
to school and attended Yale Col-
lege for a couple of years.
By the time Benjamin returned
to Charleston, the South Carolina
cotton boom was over, and he fol-
lowed the crowd to the new boom
town of New Orleans where he
tutored children and studied with
a notary for a career at law.
7 he years from 1827 to 1832 were
Lebanese Students Support
Terror But Believe in Peace
By AMOS BEN-VERED
(Copyright 1971 JTA, Inc.)
JERUSALEM—Seventy per cent
of the students at three universities
in Lebanon support the hostile
activities against Israel by the
Palest'ne terrorists, but the same
percentage also believe in a peace-
ful solution of the Arab-Israeli con-
flict.
This contradiction is puzzling
even to the source which published
....tbe figures. In this context the
source is most reliable: it is the
weekly of the extreme left-wing
Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine led by Dr. George
Habbash. The paper is called "Al
Hadaf" and is published in Beirut.
It reports the findings on the basis
of research carried out by Dr.
Khalim Barakhat, lecturer in so-
Subject
A. Degree of support of
hostile terrorist activity
1. Strong support
2. Support
3. Non-Support
cial sciences at the American Uni-
versity in Beirut.
The research included 100 ques-
tions on the social, religious and
political views of students. The
universities in the Lebanon are at-
tended by students from many
Arab states. The aim of the ques-
tions was, according to the weekly:
a) To investigate the extent of
the students' support, or non-sup-
port, of fedayeen (terrorist) activ-
ity.
b) To find out what, in the stu-
dents' opinion, is the preferable
solution to the Palestine problem—
armed conflict or a solution of
peace through diplomacy;
c) To investigate the social fac-
tors and conditions influencing the
findings with regard to the two
earlier paragraphs.
These are the results of the poll:
American
University
40%
38%
22%
Lebanese
University
35%
54%
11%
34%
36%
29%
21%
60%
19%
AIL--Preferred Solution
of Palestine problem
1. Armed conflict
2. Peaceful solution
3. Other solutions
New Right-Wing
Extremist Party
Begun in Germany
BONN (JTA) — A new extreme
right-wing organization calling it-
self the New Right Party, was
launched in Munich by Siegfried
Poehlmann, a lawyer who had
headed the Bavarian chapter of
the reputedly neo-Nazi National De-
mocratic Party (NPD).
Poehlmann broke with the NPD
at the Bavarian chapter's caucus
after he delivered a statement de-
nouncing Adolf von Thadden, for-
mer chairman of the NPD, and
his successor, Martin Mussgnug,
who is regarded as relatively mod-
erate by rightist standards.
Poehlmann, known as an extrem-
ist who decries the parliamentary
process, said the new party would
work outside the parliamentary
framework. He stated at his first
press conference as leader of the
New Right Party that its efforts
Ifipuld be directed against both the
new and the traditional Left and
its ideology would be "anti-Marxist
Socialism."
The NPD failed to win a single
seat in the Bundestag in West Ger-
many's last general elections and
has since lost its seats in the var-
ious state legislatures. A recent
Gallup poll showed that no more
thon 1 per cent of the German
electorate supported or sympa-
thized with the NPD.
When Mussgnug took over party
itadership from the retiring von
Thadden last fall he promised to
change ' the party's extremist
image.
important. in his life. In 1832 he leans with the North, the Gulf
was admitted to the bar and show- with the Great Lakes, and at the
same time he busied himself
ed himself so competent that in an
incredibly short time he became with plans to build a railroad
one of the great legal lights of the and canal across the narrowest--
South. The year after he was ad- - part of Mexico. He wanted to
link New Orleans, the South, the
mitted to the bar he married a
United States, with the Pacific
Catholic girl of good family whom
he had tutored and who gave birth and the Far East, with China
and India.
to a daughter, his only child.
After making a fortune in a
few short years, he left the law,
bought a sugar plantation, and
devoted himself seriously- to the
cultivation of cane and the chem-
ical mysteries of refining sugar.
Obviously he wanted to be a
Southern gentleman, a planter.
But Bellechasse, his home was
flooded by the rains, and his
carelessness in endorsing a note
for $60,000 for a defaulter
brought him to tfie end of his
string. He returned to the prac-
tice of law, still a young man.
He was personable, prepared
himself carefully, and pleaded his
cases with assurance, a calm im-
perturbability and a confidence
and serenity which overwhemed
those who were to sit in judgment.
_He was a great orator in the grand
manner of that age of rhetorical
giants.
It was during these days of the
1850s that President Pierce offered
him a seat on the U.S. Supreme
Court. A few years later, in 1858,
President Buchanan asked him to
accept the post of minister to
Spain, to the very land and court
which had persecuted Benjamin's
Spanish. Jewish forebears. He re-
fused both offers.
Pierce, as a Democrat, may
have wanted to kick him upstairs,
or possibly to win the support of
Southern Whigs. Maybe he was
honestly eager to put a great law-
yer on the Supreme Court. The
Spanish post offered him by Buch-
anan was no challenge, no invita-
tion to a man of Benjamin's
stature. He faced a struggle for
reappointment to the Senate —
now as a Democrat — and he told
Buchanan that to refuse the Lou-
isiana legislature an opportunity
to "pass judgment on HIS public
conduct" would be an act of cow-
ardice. Still not 50 years of age,
he was convinced that the would
find new worlds to conquer.
In the economy of Benjamin's
being, sucess was imperative. A-
bove all else he seems to have
craved recognition by his peers. He
was desperately desirous of mak-
ing money. He had known pov-
As a Southerner and a planter,
erty; he had his parents to sup-
port, and his wife and child had Benjamin inevitably became a
secessionist. Jefferson Davis, the
early moved to Paris.
President of the Confederacy, ap-
Before long he went into politics pointed him his attorney general
as a conservative, a Whig, and by and then secretary of war, but he
1E53, at the age of 42, he was a had to leave the latter post, for
St. Joseph member of the U.S. Senate where the generals in the field were un-
University he was soon recognized and re- happy with him and the masses of
23%
spected, though not much loved.
the South had no affection for him.
55%
In aspiration at least, Benjamin He was a Southerner politically,
22%
was an imaginative commercial not spiritually.
visionary, an empire builder. He
The electorate never identi-
helped organize a railroad which
fied with him nor he with them.
would ultimately link New Or-
Davis, however, then named him
27%
29%
44%
to the least- important job in
the cabinet, secretary of state.
He was the brain of the Con-
federacy. It was his -task to
secure recognition
the new
country by the great European
powerr. He failed, of course.
The tide of war had turned
against the South; U.S. Grant
was in the saddle. In this hour
of need as the South tottered
and struggled to keep her foot-
ing, Benjamin attempted one of
the boldest strokes in history.
He was prepared -to:enfranchise
the slaves if they would only
fight for the Confederacy.
But fate had passed the South
by; it was to be another 'hundred
years before the states south of
the Mason-Dixon Line would even
begin according Blacks any degree
of political equality.
Lee surrendered, 'and Benjamin,
a fugitive, fled to England. There,
at the age of 55, he was admitted
to the bar, and almost over night,
owing -to the publication of a great
legal textbook on sales. be became
one of the outstanding lawyers
of the Empire, -
Judah P. Benjamin died in Paris
at his wife's home in 1884. It is
the judgment of history that be
was a great American, but what
manner of Jew was he? Beyond the
accident of birth he was no Jew
at
He could not even be
goaded by anti-Jewish prejudice
to align himself with Jews. Even
when this pros very man was
taunted– by a Nifihern senator as
"an Israelite with Egyptian prin-
ciples," he was apparently un-
moved. Both in the North and in
the. South, he was attacked as a
Jevi, but this man- went calmly
ahead, unruffled,---undisturbed, un-
moved—as- far as we know. He
never even became a Jew by re-
sentment. There is no record that
he ever did anything of a positive
active nature to express overt
sympathy „with the Jews.ile shared
with them an ancestory—and noth-
ing more.
or
Chief Justice Burger, the Talmud
The significance of these results
(rounded out to the nearest per
cent) is that in each of the three
universities about 70 per cent of
universities
those polled expressed varying de-
grees of support for terrorist activ-
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
ity, while the remainder objected
to it. However, on the other hand,
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
at two out of the same three uni- criticized our prisons -
for failing to
versifies more than 70 per cent do anything constructive towards
supported a solution of peace and the rehabilitation of prisoners.
"other solutions" (as opposed to Above
all, he thought, the men in
"armed conflict"), and at the Lob- prison w ith out
anese University 60 per cent ex- taught one.
Perhaps, he suggested,
pressed support for a solution of some
incentive might be provided
peace. At the third institution, the —a reduction
of the sentence—for
American University — in which learning a trade.
Chief Justice
the percentage of
non-Lebanese Burger seems to agree with the
students is highest —65 per cent
Talmud. Rabbi Judah ben Ilai said
supported such solutions.
"the parent who does not teach his
The results show that a consid- child a trade, teaches him burg-
erable part of those students who lary."
supported hostile terrorist activity
Ancient Israel did not have
prefer, at the same time, a solution much in the way of prisons. For
of peace or other solutions — but some offenses stripes could be in-
not armed conflict — of the Arab- flicted. For stealing, double resti-
Israel dispute. This contradiction, tution had to be made. There were
according to the original summary cities of refuge, to which perpetra-
of the researcher, may be explain. tors of involuntary murder might
ed by the fact that for these stu- flee, but there is little, if any,
dents support of hostile terrorist mention of imprisonment.
activity denotes paying lip service
Perhaps the heightened Jewish
and is a social must. However, it
would seem that their support for sense of social justice made for
less
of the poverty which breeds
solutions not entailing the use of
force expresses their real attitude. crime. Conditions such as exist in
South America or Vietnam, where
This assumption is supported by a few own most of the land, are not
"Al Hadaf" itself. The paper com- tolerated under the Mosaic law
ments on the puzzling contradiction which proclaims freedom of the
reflected in the results of the poll land to all.
with the folloWing caustic words:
The Bible tells us that JOseph
"This is a poll exposing false was cast into prison, but that was
convictions. It proved that those when he was in Egypt. It was all
who have expressed a capitalist, the result of a trumped up charge
conservative and religious ideology of assault and if he had had a good
do not really support Fedayeen lawyer and appealed the case, no
activity."
doubt he would have been freed.
.
,
v enology, Joseph and Psychi atey
But the case of Joseph shows that went through with his decision, he
a term in prison need not cause would break every window in the
one to despair.
synagogue.
In prison, Joseph, an early Sig-
"And do you think I will do noth-
mund Freud, pratciced analysis and ing?" asked the rabbi.
interpretation of dreams. He ana-
"What will you do?" asked the
lyzed the dreams of his fellow' pris- threatening Jew.
oners, including the butler who had
"I will immediately send for the
once served Pharaoh. Dr. Joseph,
without a fee, predicted the butler glazier and have new windows put
in,"
said the rabbi.
would be released and reinstated
The lartn--sauLzthere was no_ use
in his old job. His prediction' came '
true and later when Pharaoh had a fighting the rabbi.
dream he wanted interpreted, the
It was very difficult for a reli-
butler told him about Joseph and gious Jew to turn to crime. Imagine
he was called in. Finally, Joseph a Jew who wants to be a robber.
wound up as prime minister.
There is a Jewish law that no one
Joseph was not only a great in- can enter a house without knock-
terpreter of dreams, but a man ing. . So the man who wants to be a
addicted to dreams himself. His robber, if he is a good Jew, is
wonderful career —from prison to stumped at the very beginning.
palace—might indeed be said to be Even if he decided to enter through
a materialization of some of the the window, he must first knock,
dreams of his youth which he told according to Jewish law.
to his brothers.
The rabbi of Minsk once hired
What every prisoner needs, along a hackman to take him to Pinsk.
with a trade, is also a dream—a On the way, the hackman passed a
dream of future usefulness. The rich estate where he saw a load of
learning of a trade will, of course, hay. He got out of the cab, running
help him in the fulfillment of this to the hay. The rabbi yelled out
dream.
"They see, They see." The hack-
• Religion is perhaps the supreme man let go of the hay, frightened
deterrent of crime. Some may say and rushed - back into his carriage,
it is a dream. If so, it is a helpful and driving, -1Ooked back and saw
dream. The Jew in the ghettoes no one "There:is none there," he
lived with little crime. Sometimes said to the -rabbi, "why did you
one would go to the rabbi for - a say, 'they -see"V-
"Din Torah."
"I mean, they see above," said
The saintly Rabbi Satanter once the rabbi.
decided adversely against one Jew
It was very discouraging for a
who threatened that if the rabbi robber.
52 Friday, January 14, 1972
_THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
—