Benjamin, Judah P. Extracts from the Speech of Hon. Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, on the Kansas Question: Showing the True Meaning of the Kansas Law, and His Reasons for Joining the Democratic Party.

In 1852, Judah P. Benjamin became the first professing Jew elected to the United States Senate. Initially a Whig, he became a Democrat in 1856 after the Democratic Party espoused the cause of Southern rights. Benjamin was a leading member of the school of Southern politicians who favored secession from the Union as the only safeguard for Southern survival, to which end, he delivered this major address in the Senate defending slavery.