Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Judah P. Benjamin Honored at Yale

Born in Saint Croix, future Confederate cabinet minister Judah P. Benjamin spent time at uncle Jacob Levy’s store in Wilmington, North Carolina for only a few years before moving to Fayetteville in 1817. He later attained success and appointment as a Senator from Louisiana, and then Confederate Secretary of State – and would eventually come in contact with Confederate Attorney General George Davis from his boyhood town of Wilmington.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate

"I will never be taken alive."
Judah P.Benjamin, Secretary of State, CSA
to Dr. Moses Hoge


“Recently, at Houston, Tex., the writer had the privilege of announcing to the thirty-fifth convention, [United Daughters of the Confederacy], the extension of the special honor conferred upon Judah P. Benjamin, of the class of 1829, and subsequently a member of the Confederate Cabinet.

In 1925, this honor took the form of an endowment for the Yale School of Law in memory of Mr. Benjamin, who is, perhaps, the only individual in history who achieved distinction at the bar of three countries, the United States, the Confederate States, and Great Britain.

According to a letter of November 15, 1928, from Mr. George Parmly Day, treasurer of Yale University, additional endowment has been added “to perpetuate the memory of Mr. Benjamin in the field of government.” In short, under the terms of this endowment, the Yale University Press authorities have offered “a set of prints of the fifteen complete Chronicles of America Photoplays to Tulane University in New Orleans, La., for use there and, under the auspices of the University, in the schools of New Orleans; at the same time sending another set of prints of these fifteen productions as a gift in memory of Judah Philip Benjamin to the Board of Education of Richmond, Va., for use in the schools of Richmond.”

The recognition in the North of the distinguished career of Judah P. Benjamin, quondam “rebel,” if you please, is characteristic of the policy of those who have been carrying forward the exceptional – really stupendous enterprises which the Yale University Press has undertaken. In my opinion, the South should generously respond to this happy spirit in support of the…. [project] of Yale University.

In this New England recognition of Judah P. Benjamin, one is reminded of the late Charles Francis Adam’s great address of some twenty-odd years ago: “Shall Cromwell Have a Statue,” which was another way of referring to the recognition then suggested for a far greater “rebel” than the capable leader of the “Ironsides.”

It would be a splendid thing for some American of means to create a similar Foundation at the Yale Scientific School in honor of the greatest of the many great scientists of America – Matthew Fontaine Maury.

(Yale University Honors a Southern Statesman, Matthew Page Andrews, Confederate Veteran, January 1929, page 8)


Judah P. Benjamin Honored at Yale

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