Description:

Judah P. Benjamin
Washington, DC, March 25, 1858
Judah Benjamin Defends Slavery & Dred Scott Decision on Eve of War! Incredible!
ALS

Autograph Letter Signed, by Judah Benjamin as "J. P. Benjamin," dated "25th March '58," Washington, D.C., and addressed to Charles O'Conor Esq. Some toning, remnants of prior mounting on edge, else fine, boldly signed. One page, measures 5" x 8".

Benjamin thanks O'Conor for his favorable opinion of his address delivered in the United States Senate on March 11, 1858, during debate over the Kansas Bill and the broader issue of slavery in the territories. In that speech, Benjamin forcefully defended the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision and directly challenged Senator Stephen A. Douglas's doctrine of Popular Sovereignty. Benjamin argued that slavery was embedded in the common law traditions of the thirteen original colonies and supported by longstanding legal precedent and historical custom. He maintained that the Constitution recognized and protected slave property, and therefore Congress possessed no authority to exclude slavery from the federal territories.

In full:

"My dear sir

Thanks for your kind note which gives me the gratifying assurance that you are pleased with my speech –

I send you a dozen copies as requested.

Since making my speech a friend has shown me the opinion of the Ch. J (Chief Justice) of Ohio on the same subject. If you have not seen the case, you ought to look at it in your Lemmon case. It is the last case in 6th Ohio Rep. decided in Dec '56.

Yrs very truly
J. P. Benjamin."

This letter refers to Judah P. Benjamin's Senate address delivered days prior on Thursday, March 11, 1858, titled "Slavery Protected by the Common Law of the New World. Guarantied by the Constitution." At the time, Benjamin was serving as United States Senator from Louisiana (1853–1861) and was widely regarded as one of the most formidable constitutional lawyers in Congress.

In that speech, Benjamin argued that slavery was not merely a statutory institution but one recognized and protected under the common law traditions inherited from England and guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Delivered amid intensifying sectional tensions following the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the speech formed part of the broader national debate over slavery's expansion into the territories and the constitutional balance between federal authority and states' rights.

The Ohio Supreme Court opinion he references took the opposite approach, asserting that slavery depended entirely on positive law and had no inherent standing under general common law within a free state's jurisdiction. Benjamin's acknowledgment of this decision demonstrates his close engagement with free-state jurisprudence as he crafted a broader constitutional defense of slavery.

Benjamin would later serve in the Confederate government as Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State under Jefferson Davis, before rebuilding a distinguished legal career in England after the Civil War.

Lemmon v. New York (1860)—often called the “Lemmon Slave Case”—was a major pre–Civil War legal dispute over slavery and state authority. The case began in 1852 when Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon, slaveholders from Virginia, brought eight enslaved people with them while traveling through New York on their way to Texas. Because New York had abolished slavery and had a law declaring that enslaved people brought into the state would become free, abolitionists filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking their release. New York courts ultimately ruled that the eight individuals were free, holding that the state had the authority to apply its own anti-slavery laws even to enslaved people merely passing through its territory. The decision, affirmed by the New York Court of Appeals in 1860, intensified tensions between free and slave states and stood in sharp contrast to the pro-slavery ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dred Scott v. Sandford, highlighting the deep constitutional conflicts over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 5" x 8"
  • Medium: ALS

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