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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Judah P. Benjamin

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Judah P. Benjamin

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 30, 2015 by  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 11:11, 11 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Photographic portrait of a middle-aged, curly-haired man with a short beard and a slight smile. He is formally dressed in the fashions of the mid-19th century.

Judah Benjamin (1811–1884) was a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. Benjamin was the first person professing the Jewish faith to be elected to the United States Senate, and the first Jew to hold a cabinet position in North America. Benjamin attended Yale, and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he read law and passed the bar. He rose rapidly both at the bar and in politics, becoming a wealthy slaveowner, and serving in both houses of the Louisiana legislature prior to his election to the Senate in 1852. There, he was an eloquent supporter of slavery. When war began, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Attorney General, and then Secretary of War. Made Secretary of State in April 1862, Benjamin attempted to gain recognition of the Confederacy by France and the United Kingdom; his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. When Davis fled the Confederate capital of Richmond in early 1865, Benjamin went with him, but left the presidential party and made his way to Britain, where he became a barrister, again rising to the top of his profession before retiring in 1883. He died in Paris the following year. (Full article...)

Fixed. I nommed without checking.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:41, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I think Benjamin is sui generis. The anniversary isn't terribly important (except possibly to Benjamin) but I felt it should run during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War period, and most of the good dates were past before it was featured.--Wehwalt (talk) 05:08, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]