Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/245

Rh His struggles, his achievements, his conduct during prosperity and adversity, give eloquent testimony to his magnificent mentality, his tireless energy, his indomitable courage, his unvarying loyalty to the South. His mental faculties were of the massive and majestic order, possessing solidity, strength and exhaustless power. But because titanic his intellect was by no means slow or heavy. He was quick and keen in debate, skillful and incisive in repartee, active and accurate in those legal and forensic tourneys in which his professional and civic duties called him to particpate. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, who was his constant opponent, paid high tirbute to his ability, and declared him the ablest and most eloquent man in the Senate. And those were days when the Senate of the United States was an august body, and ability and eloquence characteristic of its deliberations.

His mind was constituted to deal with large things. He loved to plead causes, and though he could, when necessity demanded, play with consummate skill upon logical premises and twist them to suit his case, yet he could not "reduce his mind to a level with those speciosities" that are often resorted to to twist a verdict from a jury. His capacity for work was apparently inexhaustible. He would often labor from 8 A. M. till 2 and 3 of the following morning. President Davis recognized this capacity, and gave him much work that did not belong to his department. It was said that he was the only officer in the Cabinet who could fill any other man's place.

Mr. Benjamin's success and his eloquence were the fruit of his tremendous mental power more than of any special physical grace or gift. In figure he was short and inclined to be stout. In feature, while not typically, he was distinguishably Jewish. His eyes, hair and beard were dark, the face round and the lips full. His voice was silvery and resonant when he poured forth the flow of logic, rhetoric superb diction, scholarly research and invincible argument that characterized his addresses. We can easily understand how he gained his triumphs in the forum and at the bar. It is said that this richness and perfection of style he evinced in the most unimportant documents. He did not write a note even for a servant to fetch an umbrella that was