Lot Details
Lot 26
BENJAMIN, JUDAH P. Autograph document signed.
New Orleans, Louisiana: after February 6, 1834. 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches (32 x 19.5 cm); legal folio, single leaf, 2 pp., with text in French, written in Benjamin's neat hand in dark brown ink. Toned, leaf separated at one fold (with very minor losses no affecting readability), starting to separate on another, small loss at head from removal of a small seal.
The document is a legal pleading before a judge of the First Judicial District of Louisiana, presenting the petition of George William Reinecke of New Orleans, who had purchased a thirteen-year old slave named Bill from Christoval Morel with two promissory notes (for six and twelve months) dated February 6, 1834. Morel had guaranteed the health of the slave, who subsequently died of chronic pneumonia, and who also proved to have a severe hernia; Reinecke petitions to be reimbursed by Morel for expenses relating to the slave's illness, to have moneys he had already paid refunded, and for the Court to order Morel not to negotiate the remaining note.
Benjamin, a lawyer who became a wealthy planter and slaveholder, became active in politics, serving in the Louisiana legislature before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1852, where he served as an apologist for slavery. After Secession, he resigned his Senate seat and was appointed first Attorney General to the Confederacy by Jefferson Davis, and subsequently Secretary of War and then Secretary of State. In the last role, he attempted to gain official recognition of the Confederacy by France and the United Kingdom. After the fall of Richmond, he escaped to Great Britain, where he successfully resumed his legal practice.
With Kenneth W. Rendell.
C
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