Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/249

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HON. JUDAH P. BENJAMIN.
245

whom was assigned the "laboring oar," would say all that need be said about the illustrious subject of this portrait, I gave my consent to act the minor part in these interesting exercises.

As I have said, on a former occasion, to me, the most interesting and impressive services that take place in this historic city from year to year, and from time to time, are those performed by the patriotic women of the Hollywood, Oakwood, and Hebrew Memorial Associations, in making their annual pilgrimages, to deck with the flowers of each recurring spring the graves of the immortal and heroic Confederate dead, and the meeting of these remnants of the Confederate armies gathering here from time to time, to adorn these graves, with the representative soldiers and statesmen of the "storm cradled" but meteoric, and ever glorious Confederacy.

"Ah realm of tombs, but let her live
Thus blossom to the end of time,
No nation rose so white and fair,
None fell so pure of crime."

No better evidence of the justice of the Confederate cause can be found, in my opinion, thru the fact of the unanimity of its supporters, in the South, from '61 to '65, and the fact that these supporters were confined to no class, creed or condition of our people. But Jews and Gentile, great and small, high and low, within the limits of the seceded States were enlisted almost as one man on the side of the defense of their homes and firesides, which was the embodiment of the real principle underlying the Confederate cause, and the further fact that although that cause went down in defeat more than a third of a century ago, its memories and its principles are still engraven on our hearts.

Among the Jews, easily the most distinguished and conspicuous, as he was one of the most remarkable men, not only of his race but of every other, was Judah Phillips Benjamin, of Louisiana. Of all reputations attained by men of intellect and learning, that of the great lawyer is the most ephemeral. Many of us, when the name of the greatest man of his age