 Benjamin scaled back his involvement in politics in the late 1840s , distracted by his plantation and law practice . His mother Rebecca , whom he had brought to New Orleans , died in 1847 during a yellow fever epidemic . In 1848 , Benjamin was a Whig member of the Electoral College ; he voted for fellow Louisiana planter , General Zachary Taylor , who was elected U.S. President . He and other Louisianans accompanied President @-@ elect Taylor to Washington for his inauguration , and Benjamin attended a state dinner given by outgoing president James K. Polk . In 1850 , Millard Fillmore , who succeeded Taylor after his death earlier that year , appointed Benjamin as judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California . He was confirmed by the Senate , but he declined the appointment as the salary of $ 3 @,@ 500 was too small . The following year , Benjamin assisted the United States Attorney in New Orleans in prosecuting American adventurers who had tried to spark a rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba , but two trials both ended in hung juries . 
