 Davis , in his memoirs , remarked that he chose Benjamin because he " had a very high reputation as a lawyer , and my acquaintance with him in the Senate had impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect , his systematic habits , and capacity for labor " . Meade suggested that Davis likely wanted to have a Louisianan in his Cabinet , but that a smarter course of action would have been to send Benjamin abroad to win over the European governments . Butler called Benjamin 's appointment " a waste of good material " . Historian William C. Davis , in his volume on the formation of the Confederate government , notes , " For some there was next to nothing to do , none more so than Benjamin . " The role of the attorney general in a Confederacy that did not yet have federal courts or marshals was so minimal that initial layouts for the building housing the government in Montgomery allowed no space to the Justice Department . 
