first of his works, was originally intended for his own private use, but after its utility had been proved among those to whom, with his accustomed generosity, be lent it, he extended its scope, and, alone with his friend Thomas Slidell, published it in 1834 under the title of 'A Digest of Reported Decisions of the Supreme Court of the late Territory of Orleans, and of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.' It was the first collection of the peculiarly complicated law of New Orleans, derived from Roman, Spanish, French, and English sources, and to his early study of this composite body of law Benjamin probably owed that knowledge of different juristic systems which afterwards distinguished him in England. In 1840 he was a member of the firm of Slidell, Benjamin & Conrad, and being in large practice left to Slidell the preparation of the second edition of the digest, called for that year. He did a leading business in planters and cotton merchants' cases. His arguments in the 'Creole' case (1841), on insurance claims arising from an insurrection of slaves on ship-board, excited much admiration, and wre printed. A United States commission having been appointed in 1847 to investigate the chaos of Spanish land titles under which the early speculators in California claimed, Benjamin was retained as counsel, receiving a fee of $25,000. He returned to New Orleans, and in December term 1848 was admitted counsellor of the supreme court. His practice, which from that time lay chiefly in Washington, though large, was by no means as lucrative as that he had in England, for he never made over 10,000/. a year there along with the other members of his firm, while at the English bar his income was for two or three successive years 15,000/.
During this time he took a keen interest in politics. For a time he had been a whig, and when that party broke up he joined the democrats. He was elected a senator for Louisiana to the United States senate in 1852 and again in 1857, having for his colleague John Slidell, afterwards, when a commissioner of the confederate states, seized by the federal warship San Jacinto, on board the British ship Trent, on her passage from Havannah to St. Thomas. In the senate Benjamin made a great impression. Charles Sumner, his constant opponent in politics, considered him to be the most eloquent speaker in the senate, and Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who was present and heard his address on 31 Dec. 1860, justifying the doctrine of state rights, and declaring his adhesion to the cause of secession, said of it, 'It is better than our Benjamin could have done.' His physical qualities suited him well for public speaking. His figure was short, square, and sturdy, his face firm and resolute, his eyes piercing, and his voice clear and silvery.
During his presidency, from 1853-1857, President Franklin Pierce offered Benjamin a judgeship in the Supreme court of the United States. High as such a dignity was, Benjamin preferred to remain at the bar. He was soon, however, to quit his legal practice for the career of a statesman. When South Carolina seceded he cast in his lot with the South. He made several brilliant speeches on constitutional questions, defending 'state rights' on legal grounds. On 4 Feb. 1861 he withdrew from the senate and hastily left Washington. When Jefferson Davis formed his provisional government of the Southern Confederacy in the same month, Benjamin was included in the cabinet as Attorney-general. 'Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana,' said Davis, 'had a very high reputation as a lawyer, and my acquaintance with him in the senate had impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect, his systematic habit, and capacity for labour' (Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, i. 242). In August he became acting secretary of war, and continued in this office until the reconstruction of the cabinet in February 1862, when he became secretary of state, an office which he retained until the final overthrow of the confederate forces. Benjamin's exertions in the discharge of his official duties were so great as almost to break down even his iron strength. He had the reputation of being 'the brains of the Confederacy;' and Mr. Davis fell into the habit of sending to him all work that did not obviously belong to the department of some other minister. Beginning work at his office at 8 a.m. he was often occupied until 1 or 2 o'clock next morning. The autocratic character of Davis's administration, and the secrecy often observed in the debates of the House of Representatives, render it doubtful how far Benjamin was responsible for the many arbitrary measures which marked the conduct, of the war by the confederates. Some of the orders he issued were, however, undoubtedly harsh. On 25 Nov. 1801, for example, he ordered that persons found burning bridges in Tennessee should be summarily tried by court-martial and executed, and that no one who had borne arms against the government should be liberated on parole. In spite of the high opinion Davis had of him, some of his measures were sharply opposed in congress, and the severe criticism evoked by his conscription law led to his resignation in
