Benjamin
Loan
was born in Hardinsburg, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, on 4th October,
1819. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1840 and practiced
in St. Joseph, Missouri.
An opponent of slavery, on the outbreak of the American
Civil War Loan joined the Union Army.
Commissioned as a brigadier general he served until being elected
to Congress in 1863.
In 1867 Loan joined, James Ashby and
Benjamin Butler, in claiming in Congress
that Andrew Johnson had been involved
in the conspiracy to murder Abraham Lincoln.
Butler asked the question: "Who it was that could profit by assassination
(of Lincoln) who could not profit by capture and abduction? He followed
this with: "Who it was expected by the conspirators would succeed
to Lincoln, if the knife made a vacancy?" He also implied that
Johnson had been involved in tampering with the diary of John
Wilkes Booth. "Who spoliated that book? Who suppressed that
evidence?"
Much was made of the fact that John Wilkes
Booth had visited Johnson's house on the day of the assassination
and left his card with the message: "Don't wish to disturb you.
Are you at home?" Some people claimed that Booth was trying to
undermine Johnson in his future role as president by implying he was
involved in the plot. However, as his critics pointed out, this was
unnecessary as it was Booth's plan to have Johnson killed by George
Atzerodt at the same time that Abraham
Lincoln was being assassinated.
Loan lost his seat in 1868 and returned to St. Joseph, Missouri and
resumed work as a lawyer. Benjamin Franklin Loan died on 30th March,
1881.
(1)
Benjamin Loan, letter to Charles
Sumner
(1st June, 1865)
Shall
we acquiesce in the policy of the administration or shall we adhere
to our former views that Congress alone is authorized to deal with
the subject of reconstruction and that our safety and the peace of
the country requires us to disenfranchise the rebels and to enfranchise
the colored citizens in the revolted states and thereby confide the
political power therein to local and therefore safe hands.
(2)
Benjamin Loan, speech in the House of Representatives about the consequences
of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
(24th January, 1867)
In
the beginning the assassination of Lincoln had been thought the deed
"of a reckless young man. But subsequent developments have shown
it to have been the result of deliberate plans adopted in the interests
of the Rebellion." An assassin's bullet wielded and directed
by Rebel hands and paid for by Rebel gold made Andrew Johnson President.
The price that he was to pay for his promotion was treachery.
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