* Sign up for your FREE Report & FREE Updates at the very bottom of any page.
"How to Respond to an Anti-Conspiracy Theorist"
***************************
Benjamin's subversive influence was immense.Why has it been downplayed in history?
Judah Benjamin: The Jewish Boss of the Confederacy
***************************
"Judah P. Benjamin was known as "the brains of the Confederacy," its "court Jew," "the statesman of the Lost Cause," and even "the Confederate Kissinger. As, successively, Attorney General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State in the Confederate Cabinet, he was President Jefferson Davis' closest and most trusted adviser."
- The New Orleans Times Picayunne / 'The Confederate Kissinger' / April 20, 2010
THE SETTING
In the years before the War Between the States broke out in 1861, there were extreme northern factions supporting the unreasonable demand for the instant and violent abolition of slavery on one end, as well as others promoting the equally unreasonable demand for southern secession from the Union on another end. The two elements played off of each other, culminating in the post-election crisis of 1860. That election was won by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois -- a Unionist who actually detested the radical abolitionists and believed in gradually repatriating freed slaves to Africa instead. Seven out of the eleven seceding southern legislatures -- all citing the pretext of a Federal threat to the institution of slavery or "states rights" (example here) -- exactly as the staunchly pro-Union "Son-of-the-South" President Andrew Jackson had predicted and warned about 28 years earlier -- had actually quit the United States in the months and weeks BEFORE Lincoln was even inaugurated in March of 1861. This was in spite of substantial opposition to secession that existed in the South and in spite of President Elect Lincoln's repeated promises -- including in his very conciliatory 1861 inauguration speech of March 4, 1861 -- in which he again urged calm, pledged not to interfere with slavery in the states in which it already exists; and promised not to attack the South unless the Confederates attacked first.
When Confederate President Jefferson Davis -- with trusted advisor (handler) Judah Benjamin (cough cough) always at his side -- orders an attack on Federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, the war is on. When Union troops mobilized, most good southerners, some previously reluctant, then patriotically rallied to "the cause."
In the years before the War Between the States broke out in 1861, there were extreme northern factions supporting the unreasonable demand for the instant and violent abolition of slavery on one end, as well as others promoting the equally unreasonable demand for southern secession from the Union on another end. The two elements played off of each other, culminating in the post-election crisis of 1860. That election was won by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois -- a Unionist who actually detested the radical abolitionists and believed in gradually repatriating freed slaves to Africa instead. Seven out of the eleven seceding southern legislatures -- all citing the pretext of a Federal threat to the institution of slavery or "states rights" (example here) -- exactly as the staunchly pro-Union "Son-of-the-South" President Andrew Jackson had predicted and warned about 28 years earlier -- had actually quit the United States in the months and weeks BEFORE Lincoln was even inaugurated in March of 1861. This was in spite of substantial opposition to secession that existed in the South and in spite of President Elect Lincoln's repeated promises -- including in his very conciliatory 1861 inauguration speech of March 4, 1861 -- in which he again urged calm, pledged not to interfere with slavery in the states in which it already exists; and promised not to attack the South unless the Confederates attacked first.
When Confederate President Jefferson Davis -- with trusted advisor (handler) Judah Benjamin (cough cough) always at his side -- orders an attack on Federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, the war is on. When Union troops mobilized, most good southerners, some previously reluctant, then patriotically rallied to "the cause."
1. The secession movement originated in South Carolina with John C. Calhoun's "Tariff Nullification Crisis" of 1832-33. The effort was put down by President Andrew Jackson's threat of force, coupled with a tariff reduction on British imports to the South. Jackson later said that his greatest regret as President was "that I did not hang John C. Calhoun" (who was also an ally of the early Central Bank which Jackson destroyed.) Calhoun died in 1850, but "Calhounism" lived on -- finding slavery as the next pretext. // 2. Most of the southern states (Calhoun's South Carolina being the first) broke away from the Union after Lincoln was elected, but before he actually took office. // 3. The Confederacy bombards Fort Sumter in South Carolina, after the Union refused to vacate the fort.
THE ROTHSCHILD HAND
When we think of the Confederacy, the big names that automatically come to mind are the three legends carved into the side of Georgia's Stone Mountain: the aforementioned President Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson. Significant figures for sure, but in the grander power-scheme of things, these men, including Davis himself, were outranked by Judah P. Benjamin. The fact that Benjamin's name is so relatively unknown is, ironically, testament to the awesome "behind-the-scenes" power that he wielded. Unfortunately for the South (and the North), Benjamin's influence served neither of the Americas. His loyalties were elsewhere - in Rothschild's London.
Louisiana Senator John Slidell was not Jewish (at least not outwardly), but his family ties to elite European Jewry ran deep. Slidell’s daughter would marry Baron Frederic Erlanger, a French Jewish financier based in Paris. Erlanger helped to fund the Confederacy, gouging the South with usurious interest rates and fees too!
Erlanger's financing of the South, as confirmed even by contemporary New York Times articles, was directly linked to the House of Rothschild. Papa-in-Law Slidell would later serve the Confederate States government as foreign diplomat to Great Britain and French Emperor Napoleon III. Now the niece of the influential Senator is married to northern financier August Belmont (Schönberg)- Rothschild’s Jewish boy and Democrat Party boss pretending to support the Union, at least at first. After the war, “Confederate” Slidell will make his “Unionist” nephew-in-law Belmont his political protégé.
Also hooked up with Senator Slidell in this tangled North-South-Rothschild knot of financial-political intrigue was fellow Louisiana Senator Benjamin. The Jewish big-shot will go on to become the Confederacy’s Attorney General, then Secretary of War, and then Secretary of State. Through the shadowy fog of 150 years of elapsed history, we can now discern a pattern of divide & conquer, balance of power conspiratorial actions being played upon both sides - and with tragic consequences.
When we think of the Confederacy, the big names that automatically come to mind are the three legends carved into the side of Georgia's Stone Mountain: the aforementioned President Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson. Significant figures for sure, but in the grander power-scheme of things, these men, including Davis himself, were outranked by Judah P. Benjamin. The fact that Benjamin's name is so relatively unknown is, ironically, testament to the awesome "behind-the-scenes" power that he wielded. Unfortunately for the South (and the North), Benjamin's influence served neither of the Americas. His loyalties were elsewhere - in Rothschild's London.
Louisiana Senator John Slidell was not Jewish (at least not outwardly), but his family ties to elite European Jewry ran deep. Slidell’s daughter would marry Baron Frederic Erlanger, a French Jewish financier based in Paris. Erlanger helped to fund the Confederacy, gouging the South with usurious interest rates and fees too!
Erlanger's financing of the South, as confirmed even by contemporary New York Times articles, was directly linked to the House of Rothschild. Papa-in-Law Slidell would later serve the Confederate States government as foreign diplomat to Great Britain and French Emperor Napoleon III. Now the niece of the influential Senator is married to northern financier August Belmont (Schönberg)- Rothschild’s Jewish boy and Democrat Party boss pretending to support the Union, at least at first. After the war, “Confederate” Slidell will make his “Unionist” nephew-in-law Belmont his political protégé.
Also hooked up with Senator Slidell in this tangled North-South-Rothschild knot of financial-political intrigue was fellow Louisiana Senator Benjamin. The Jewish big-shot will go on to become the Confederacy’s Attorney General, then Secretary of War, and then Secretary of State. Through the shadowy fog of 150 years of elapsed history, we can now discern a pattern of divide & conquer, balance of power conspiratorial actions being played upon both sides - and with tragic consequences.
Benjamin's image never made it to Stone Mountain, but his 'mug-shot' did appear on Confederate currency and bonds!
Top: Senator Slidell & his Jewish Son-in-Law Erlanger // Bottom: Slidell's Jewish Northern Nephew-in-Law Belmont & and Jewish fellow Senator Benjamin. Together, they form an incestuous North-South connection with direct links to the House of Rothschild.
Engraved portraits (from 1861) of the South's chieftains depict Judah Benjamin at the very top (!) with Jefferson Davis in a bigger circle but down lower. Sleazy Slidell with the Rothschild agents for in-laws is to the left of Davis.
Could the new War Secretary Benjamin's subsequent 1861 interference with the Generals - acts so controversial that they would force a Congressional investigation - and his bizarre refusal to supply them as requested have been a ploy designed to prolong the war until Rothschild could bury both sides in debt, before sending the Family's British and French hit-men to divvy up' America into two spheres?
Establishment historians will later claim that Benjamin's stubborn defiance of the Generals was due to a lack of supplies in the South. But given how early it was in the war, the claim that supplies were low seems like a cover story. If "lack of supplies" had been the cause of Benjamin's stalling decisions, Generals Stonewall Jackson and P. G. T. Beauregard would not have had reason to dislike Benjamin as they did. Such a delaying scenario would fit perfectly with a Rothschild plan to have a long war, one in which both sides could be indebted and weakened before the British & French can arrive.
By 1862, the initial "rah-rah" fervor of 1861 has spent itself (dead bodies, amputated limbs, grieving mothers, widows & orphans will often do that). The realities of the longer and more difficult war against the North -- which cooler headed pro-Union (pre-war) southerners like Robert E. Lee had previously warned about -- became fully understood. Desertion also increased. Hence, a military draft -- opposed by many Southerners -- became necessary to maintain Confederate ranks (as was the case in the North too). Loopholes allowed wealthy slaveholders to legally evade conscription, causing resentment among many of the less affluent men drafted for a war which many of them believed was being fought for "King Cotton."
Establishment historians will later claim that Benjamin's stubborn defiance of the Generals was due to a lack of supplies in the South. But given how early it was in the war, the claim that supplies were low seems like a cover story. If "lack of supplies" had been the cause of Benjamin's stalling decisions, Generals Stonewall Jackson and P. G. T. Beauregard would not have had reason to dislike Benjamin as they did. Such a delaying scenario would fit perfectly with a Rothschild plan to have a long war, one in which both sides could be indebted and weakened before the British & French can arrive.
By 1862, the initial "rah-rah" fervor of 1861 has spent itself (dead bodies, amputated limbs, grieving mothers, widows & orphans will often do that). The realities of the longer and more difficult war against the North -- which cooler headed pro-Union (pre-war) southerners like Robert E. Lee had previously warned about -- became fully understood. Desertion also increased. Hence, a military draft -- opposed by many Southerners -- became necessary to maintain Confederate ranks (as was the case in the North too). Loopholes allowed wealthy slaveholders to legally evade conscription, causing resentment among many of the less affluent men drafted for a war which many of them believed was being fought for "King Cotton."
Generals Jackson, Beauregard and Wise all hated Judah Benjamin.
An anti-conscription print, based upon the reality. Southern men who neither owned slaves nor ever supported secession were forced to fight in a war which could have been avoided.
Let’s take a closer look at the shady Mr. Benjamin. Outwardly, the esteemed Jefferson Davis who was the ‘top dog’ of the South – the President of the Confederate States of America. Behind the scenes, Judah Benjamin, with his European connections, legendary "gift of gab" and impressive intellect was, in the grand scheme of things, more powerful than Davis. What the banking agent Alexander Hamilton had been to George Washington, the trusted Benjamin was to Davis, and then some. Like the Hebrew-speaking Hamilton, Benjamin was also born a British subject (West Indies). There is simply no exaggerating the influence of Judah Benjamin.
Biographer Eli Evans wrote that Benjamin:
"...achieved greater political power than any other Jew in the nineteenth century — perhaps even in all American history."
Historian Charles Curran, in a 1967 issue of ‘History Today" wrote:
"Judah Philip Benjamin must be bracketed with Disraeli, who was his contemporary, as the ablest Jewish politician ever born under the British flag. But his career outdid Disraeli’s in audacity. Benjamin lived three lives in one."
Judah was a plantation owner, slave-owner and originally a Senator from Louisiana - as was the aforementioned and equally European-connected John Slidell. Although he had no military experience, Benjamin was named the South’s Secretary of War in 1861, after having served as Attorney General for several months. Many in the South will come to loathe and mistrust Benjamin. The great General Jackson once threatened to resign over conflicts with Benjamin - who was referred to by some in the South as “Mr. Davis’s pet Jew."
But certain people in Europe had a much higher opinion of Benjamin. In 1861, Salomon de Rothschild - grandson of dynasty founder Mayer Amschel Rothschild - during a visit to Louisiana described Benjamin as: “the greatest mind in North America.” That pretty much tells us all we need to know about the “southern rebel” Judah Benjamin!
In the fall of 1859, de Rothschild, the son of Baron James de Rothschild of Paris, had come to the United States as a tourist. His travels in the North and South were recorded in a series of letters to his cousin Nathaniel in London. Rothschild met with prominent politicians (surely with Benjamin) and commented on the issues of the day. His views were "pro-Confederate" and his letters urged cousin Nathan to use the family's influence to gain the recognition of the Confederacy by the European powers.
Biographer Eli Evans wrote that Benjamin:
"...achieved greater political power than any other Jew in the nineteenth century — perhaps even in all American history."
Historian Charles Curran, in a 1967 issue of ‘History Today" wrote:
"Judah Philip Benjamin must be bracketed with Disraeli, who was his contemporary, as the ablest Jewish politician ever born under the British flag. But his career outdid Disraeli’s in audacity. Benjamin lived three lives in one."
Judah was a plantation owner, slave-owner and originally a Senator from Louisiana - as was the aforementioned and equally European-connected John Slidell. Although he had no military experience, Benjamin was named the South’s Secretary of War in 1861, after having served as Attorney General for several months. Many in the South will come to loathe and mistrust Benjamin. The great General Jackson once threatened to resign over conflicts with Benjamin - who was referred to by some in the South as “Mr. Davis’s pet Jew."
But certain people in Europe had a much higher opinion of Benjamin. In 1861, Salomon de Rothschild - grandson of dynasty founder Mayer Amschel Rothschild - during a visit to Louisiana described Benjamin as: “the greatest mind in North America.” That pretty much tells us all we need to know about the “southern rebel” Judah Benjamin!
In the fall of 1859, de Rothschild, the son of Baron James de Rothschild of Paris, had come to the United States as a tourist. His travels in the North and South were recorded in a series of letters to his cousin Nathaniel in London. Rothschild met with prominent politicians (surely with Benjamin) and commented on the issues of the day. His views were "pro-Confederate" and his letters urged cousin Nathan to use the family's influence to gain the recognition of the Confederacy by the European powers.
Rothschilds for Dixie? - Sing it! - "Oh I wish I were in the land of Matzo..." Solomon Rothschild (l) urged Nathan Rothschild (who resembles Judah Benjamin) to support the South.
EXCERPT: "The European states should indeed intercede in order to avoid bloodshed which would be useless and very detrimental to their commerce.....
What is astonishing here, or rather, what is not astonishing, is the high position occupied by our co-religionists, or rather by those who were born into the faith and who, having married Christian women, and without converting, have forgotten the practices of their fathers.
Judah P. Benjamin, the Attorney General of the Confederate States, is perhaps the greatest mind on this continent. H.M. Hyams, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, Moyse, the Secretary of the Interior, etc. And what is odd, all these men have a Jewish heart and take an interest in me, because I represent the greatest Jewish house in the world."
http://www.jewish-history.com/salomon/
JUDAH BENJAMIN's EUROPEAN PLOT
In 1862, Benjamin, under intense Congressional pressure, was forced to resign as War Secretary. Jefferson Davis then appointed his beleaguered adviser as the South’s Secretary of State! In this position, Benjamin worked with Slidell and Slidell’s French Jewish son-in-Law Erlanger to secure not just financing from the Rothschild syndicate, but also to induce the direct involvement of Rothschild’s Britain & France into the war, on the side of the South.
A joint British & French entry into the war would have tipped the scales in favor of the South, and ultimately led to two American nations, both under foreign influence. Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward block Judah Benjamin's scheme by turning to Russia for help.
In a clear message to his old Rothschild-funded foes from the Crimean War, Czar Alexander II stationed the better part of his Pacific fleet in San Francisco, and a portion of his western fleet in New York. The British & French instigators of the Crimean War got the message and backed off. The scheme of Judah Benjamin and the Rothschild financiers was thus thwarted, as was the plot of the UK-French Alliance to interfere in the Russian-Polish dispute. That's because Russia's strategic position would also be strengthened by gaining access to year-round, non-frozen ports in America. Together, Alex and Abe have defied the London Bankers and will both pay a heavy price for it.
After the war, in recognition of, or payback for, Russia’s help in keeping Britain & France out of the war; Seward would arrange for the purchase of Alaska from Russia after the war – an act dismissed at the time as “Seward’s Folly.” But now we know the reason for the “folly."
What is astonishing here, or rather, what is not astonishing, is the high position occupied by our co-religionists, or rather by those who were born into the faith and who, having married Christian women, and without converting, have forgotten the practices of their fathers.
Judah P. Benjamin, the Attorney General of the Confederate States, is perhaps the greatest mind on this continent. H.M. Hyams, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, Moyse, the Secretary of the Interior, etc. And what is odd, all these men have a Jewish heart and take an interest in me, because I represent the greatest Jewish house in the world."
http://www.jewish-history.com/salomon/
JUDAH BENJAMIN's EUROPEAN PLOT
In 1862, Benjamin, under intense Congressional pressure, was forced to resign as War Secretary. Jefferson Davis then appointed his beleaguered adviser as the South’s Secretary of State! In this position, Benjamin worked with Slidell and Slidell’s French Jewish son-in-Law Erlanger to secure not just financing from the Rothschild syndicate, but also to induce the direct involvement of Rothschild’s Britain & France into the war, on the side of the South.
A joint British & French entry into the war would have tipped the scales in favor of the South, and ultimately led to two American nations, both under foreign influence. Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward block Judah Benjamin's scheme by turning to Russia for help.
In a clear message to his old Rothschild-funded foes from the Crimean War, Czar Alexander II stationed the better part of his Pacific fleet in San Francisco, and a portion of his western fleet in New York. The British & French instigators of the Crimean War got the message and backed off. The scheme of Judah Benjamin and the Rothschild financiers was thus thwarted, as was the plot of the UK-French Alliance to interfere in the Russian-Polish dispute. That's because Russia's strategic position would also be strengthened by gaining access to year-round, non-frozen ports in America. Together, Alex and Abe have defied the London Bankers and will both pay a heavy price for it.
After the war, in recognition of, or payback for, Russia’s help in keeping Britain & France out of the war; Seward would arrange for the purchase of Alaska from Russia after the war – an act dismissed at the time as “Seward’s Folly.” But now we know the reason for the “folly."
The presence of Russian fleets in San Francisco and New York kept Judah Benjamin's British and French attack dogs at bay. / 2. Period cartoon above depicts the Russian Bear befriending the American Eagle, as the British Lion and French Cock look on in dismay. // 3. Seward's Folly was Union payback to Russia.
OCTOBER, 1864THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE ACCUSES AUGUST BELMONT & THE ROTHSCHILDS OF PLOTTING AGAINST THE UNION
On 16, October 1864 on page 2, The Chicago Tribune reported, BELMONT'S CONFEDERATE BONDS (Excerpt)
"It is perhaps somewhat flattering to our national pride to know that the Rothschilds, who hold up every despotism in Europe, have concluded that it would be cheaper to buy up one of our political parties (Democrats), and in that way secure the dissolution of the Union, than to have their agents in England and France interfere and fight us.
But Irishmen and Germans have a something, which for brevity we will all a 'crop,' and this fact sticks in their crop, that the oppressors of Ireland and Germany, the money kings of Europe, not daring to carry out their first pet project of breaking down this Government by the armed intervention, of England and France.
Let Belmont state over his own signature, if he can that he and Rothschilds have not, directly or indirectly, in their own name, or in that of others, operated in Confederate stocks during this rebellion. Until he can face the music in that style it matters little what tune any of the Copperhead penny whistles may be authorized to blow, as they are very seldom authorized to state anything that is true."
On 16, October 1864 on page 2, The Chicago Tribune reported, BELMONT'S CONFEDERATE BONDS (Excerpt)
"It is perhaps somewhat flattering to our national pride to know that the Rothschilds, who hold up every despotism in Europe, have concluded that it would be cheaper to buy up one of our political parties (Democrats), and in that way secure the dissolution of the Union, than to have their agents in England and France interfere and fight us.
But Irishmen and Germans have a something, which for brevity we will all a 'crop,' and this fact sticks in their crop, that the oppressors of Ireland and Germany, the money kings of Europe, not daring to carry out their first pet project of breaking down this Government by the armed intervention, of England and France.
Let Belmont state over his own signature, if he can that he and Rothschilds have not, directly or indirectly, in their own name, or in that of others, operated in Confederate stocks during this rebellion. Until he can face the music in that style it matters little what tune any of the Copperhead penny whistles may be authorized to blow, as they are very seldom authorized to state anything that is true."
ALL CONNECTED BACK TO THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD! Slidell – Erlanger – Belmont – Benjamin
DID JUDAH BENJAMIN KILL LINCOLN?
In the closing days of the American Civil War, a massive conspiracy to decapitate the U.S. government resulted in the assassination of President Lincoln by an actor with ties to secret societies. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head as Lincoln and his wife watched a play at Ford’s Theatre. Booth escaped.
On the same night of Lincoln’s murder, Lewis Powell, an associate of Booth, attacked Secretary of State Seward in his home. Seward was stabbed in the face and neck before other men in the house subdue Powell. Seward’s wife Frances died two months later from stress caused by seeing her husband nearly killed. Vice President Andrew Johnson and General Ulysses S Grant were also to have been killed. The “conspiracy theorists” of the day pointed the finger at Judah Benjamin, who burns the official papers of the Confederate Secret Service right about this time. Thanks to Bennie the Burner, the full story of Confederate clandestine services and the Lincoln assassination may never be known.
In the closing days of the American Civil War, a massive conspiracy to decapitate the U.S. government resulted in the assassination of President Lincoln by an actor with ties to secret societies. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head as Lincoln and his wife watched a play at Ford’s Theatre. Booth escaped.
On the same night of Lincoln’s murder, Lewis Powell, an associate of Booth, attacked Secretary of State Seward in his home. Seward was stabbed in the face and neck before other men in the house subdue Powell. Seward’s wife Frances died two months later from stress caused by seeing her husband nearly killed. Vice President Andrew Johnson and General Ulysses S Grant were also to have been killed. The “conspiracy theorists” of the day pointed the finger at Judah Benjamin, who burns the official papers of the Confederate Secret Service right about this time. Thanks to Bennie the Burner, the full story of Confederate clandestine services and the Lincoln assassination may never be known.
1 & 2. Abe and Alex both paid with their lives for defying the Rothschilds. Judah Benjamin was suspected of engineering the Lincoln assassination. // 3. "Extremes Meet" - British (Rothschild) Press mocks Abe and Alexander's cooperation.
Lincoln's alliance with the Rothschild family's most hated enemy, Russia, and his printing of interest-free 'Greenbacks" to finance the war were big "no-no's" that got him killed. John Fazio's 'Decapitating the Union' supports the belief of many during that time that Judah Benjamin was the mastermind of the plot.
BENJAMIN BUGS OUT
As the south collapsed, Benjamin stayed in the home of a Jewish merchant in South Carolina while final surrender negotiations dragged on. Here, Benjamin abandoned President Davis's plan to fight on, telling him that the cause was hopeless. When negotiations failed, Benjamin remained part of the group around Davis that moved on with the President.
At one point, Benjamin (under suspicion for involvement in Lincoln’s assassination) told Davis that he needed to separate from the Presidential party temporarily, and go to the Bahamas to be able to send instructions to foreign agents. He reassured Davis that he would rejoin him in Texas. According to historian William C. Davis, "the pragmatic Secretary of State almost certainly never had any intention of returning to the South once gone".
When he bade Postmaster Reagan goodbye, the Postmaster asks where Benjamin is going. Benjamin replies: "To the farthest place from the United States, if it takes me to the middle of China."
While other Confederate leaders, including the trusting fool Jefferson Davis, were being jailed and abused, Benjamin arrived in London before traveling to Paris - where his wife and daughter had been sent to live years before the war had even started. Benjamin then moved back to England and would enjoy a very profitable career and “second life” as an attorney, until his death in 1884. Congressman John Wise, son of Confederate General and Virginia Governor Henry Wise, wrote a highly popular book about the South in the Civil War in 1899, The End of an Era. In it, he stated:
"(Benjamin) had more brains and less heart than any other civic leader in the South ... The Confederacy and its collapse were no more to Judah P. Benjamin than last year's bird's nest."
Unfortunately for historians, and fortunately for the Rothschilds, Benjamin, exactly as he had done with papers pertaining to the Confederacy’s secret services in 1865, also burned his personal papers shortly before his death in 1884.
As the south collapsed, Benjamin stayed in the home of a Jewish merchant in South Carolina while final surrender negotiations dragged on. Here, Benjamin abandoned President Davis's plan to fight on, telling him that the cause was hopeless. When negotiations failed, Benjamin remained part of the group around Davis that moved on with the President.
At one point, Benjamin (under suspicion for involvement in Lincoln’s assassination) told Davis that he needed to separate from the Presidential party temporarily, and go to the Bahamas to be able to send instructions to foreign agents. He reassured Davis that he would rejoin him in Texas. According to historian William C. Davis, "the pragmatic Secretary of State almost certainly never had any intention of returning to the South once gone".
When he bade Postmaster Reagan goodbye, the Postmaster asks where Benjamin is going. Benjamin replies: "To the farthest place from the United States, if it takes me to the middle of China."
While other Confederate leaders, including the trusting fool Jefferson Davis, were being jailed and abused, Benjamin arrived in London before traveling to Paris - where his wife and daughter had been sent to live years before the war had even started. Benjamin then moved back to England and would enjoy a very profitable career and “second life” as an attorney, until his death in 1884. Congressman John Wise, son of Confederate General and Virginia Governor Henry Wise, wrote a highly popular book about the South in the Civil War in 1899, The End of an Era. In it, he stated:
"(Benjamin) had more brains and less heart than any other civic leader in the South ... The Confederacy and its collapse were no more to Judah P. Benjamin than last year's bird's nest."
Unfortunately for historians, and fortunately for the Rothschilds, Benjamin, exactly as he had done with papers pertaining to the Confederacy’s secret services in 1865, also burned his personal papers shortly before his death in 1884.
1 & 2 - John Wise's ‘End of an Era’ expresses the true Southern feeling toward the fleeing scoundrel Judah Benjamin, to whom the South was like "last year's bird's nest." // 3. After abandoning his Confederate colleagues and the people of the South, Benjamin the "British" Barrister went on to enjoy a hugely successful 2nd career in Rothschild’s London -- where he was a contemporary of Karl Marx and Benjamin Disraeli. Now that you know the story of "The Confederate Kissinger" -- the reason his name is so little known should no longer be a mystery.
Comments
(All comments are read, but not always responded to)
(All comments are read, but not always responded to)