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

Judah P. Benjamin

 * 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 Today's featured article/August 30, 2015 by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 11:11, 11 August 2015 (UTC)



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.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Ruby Laffoon (2015-08-18)
 * Main editors: Wehwalt
 * Promoted: 2014
 * Reasons for nomination: 150th anniversary of his arrival in the UK
 * Support as nominator. Wehwalt (talk) 16:57, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Is this nominated for the right day? The article says he arrived on the 30th. – iridescent 17:27, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Fixed. I nommed without checking.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:41, 6 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Support per anniversary, but if this is scheduled, you may want to consider rescheduling Ruby Laffoon to another date to prevent two politics biography articles from running too close together. sovereign°sentinel (contribs) 04:18, 8 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Personally I don't see an issue with the timing; though the were both US politicians, they had completely different politics. That and we have a considerable number of US politician biographies to work our way through. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 07:57, 8 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Politicians from different eras and contrasting impacts, the one local, the other international. No scheduling issues here. Brianboulton (talk) 08:49, 8 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Then OK. Thanks for the explanation. sovereign°sentinel (contribs) 04:34, 9 August 2015 (UTC)
 * 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)