The Confederate Connection???

[L Verge]

I have a tidbit to add to the tales told about the last days of the Confederacy. I read a book about 40 years ago, so I can't give the Title, or the Author. I'm asking someone to pitch in.
The book was a life history of Judah Benjamin. In it, the author stated that - in the last days of the Confederacy, Jeff Davis was very ill and could not perform the duties of the President. Therefore he authorized Judah Benjamin to be Acting President.
This is such a critical event, yet I have never seen it mentioned elsewhere. I don't know that it really did occur, or was it presented to protect Davis.
I will find that book. While I hunt, can anyone else add to this? Any items "Plus" or "Minus', are welcome.
This makes it seem that Davis may not have known or participated in any of the Assassination plans.

John S. There have not been that many books written on Judah Benjamin, but you might be thinking of Eli Evans's biography done about thirty years ago. I have not read it, despite having a number of people recommend it.

As for Davis's health issues, didn't he suffer from a number of maladies for years (malaria, eye problems, some sort of facial pain, old war wounds from the Mexican War? By 1864-65, with the realization that the cause was lost, I would think that he would also suffer from nervous disorders and depression. I'm not sure that this bull-headed man would have turned over the Southern gov't, to anyone, but I suspect that he would have allowed Benjamin more "freedom" to carry on in his stead. Of course, Mr. Hall used to say that only a head of state can authorize the official assassination of another head of state. Whether that implies verbal authorization or written authorization - or just an agreement between two men - is up for debate...

P.S. I believe that there is proof that Surratt was in Davis's office in late-March of 1865, and also that he was summoned to Benjamin's office just days before Richmond was evacuated. Benjamin sent him to Canada with dispatches and a small amount (supposedly) of gold. In his Rockville lecture, Surratt was the perfect undercover agent, however, when it came to deniability.