By the time Benjamin returned to the East Coast, the Republican candidate, Lincoln, had been elected president, and there was talk, in Louisiana and elsewhere, of secession from the Union. The "New Orleans Picayune" reported that Benjamin favored secession only in the last resort. On December 23, 1860, another Louisiana periodical, the "Delta", printed a letter from Benjamin dated the eighth stating that, as the people of the North were of unalterable hostility to their Southern brethren, the latter should depart from the government common to them. He also signed a joint letter from Southern congressmen to their constituents, urging the formation of a confederation of the seceding states. According to a letter reportedly written by Benjamin during the crisis, he saw secession as a means of obtaining more favorable terms in a reformed Union.