Andrew
Rogers was
born in Sussex County, New Jersey, on 1st July, 1828. He worked as
a clerk in a hotel and as a school teacher before studying law.
Rogers was admitted to the bar in 1852 and worked as a lawyer in La
Fayette and Newton, in New Jersey. A member of the Democratic
Party, he was elected to the 38th Congress and took his seat on
4th March, 1863.
In 1865 Rogers was chosen as the only Democratic
Party member of the House of Representatives Committee that looked
into the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln. Only the chairman, George Boutwell
was allowed to look at all the relevant papers and afterwards Rogers
accused him of being involved in an attempt to cover-up the role of
Edwin M. Stanton in the handling of
the case.
Rogers failed to be elected to the 40th Congress and returned to his
work as a lawyer. In 1867 he moved to New
York City to become counsel for the city in important litigation.
In 1892 Rogers became police commissioner of the city of Denver. Andrew
Rogers died in New York City on 22nd
May, 1900.
(1)
Andrew
J. Rogers, House of Representatives
Report into the Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (1865)
For
some reason or reasons not fully stated, the majority of the committee
determined to throw in my way every possible impediment. The papers
were put away from me, locked in boxes, hidden; and when I asked to
see them, I was told that I could not. It was said the interests of
the Government required that none should see these papers save and
only Mr. Boutwell who was preparing the majority report. Secrecy has
surrounded and shrouded, not to say protected every step of these
examinations, and even in the committee-room I seemed to be acting
with a sort of secret council of inquisition, itself directed by an
absent vice-inquisitor, and grand inquisitor too.
(3) Andrew
J. Rogers, the only Democratic
Party
member of the House of Representatives
Committee that looked into the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln, issued his own minority report (1865)
I
do not say that Judge Holt did himself originate the charges or organize
the plot of the perjurers, because I do not know that he did; I merely
say that a plot based on the assassination was formed against Davis,
Clay, and others, and that the plotters did, and even yet, operate
through the Bureau of Military Justice, and that the argument forwarded
by Mr. Holt to the Committee of the Judiciary looked to me like a
shield extended over the plotters may be, with a desire to save certain
officers of the government from the charge of having been betrayed
into the blunders of an excitement, which it was their province to
allay or control, not to increase. I believe this was done to hide
the disgraceful fact that the assassination of Mr. Lincoln was seized
upon as a pretext to hatch charges against a number of historical
personages, to blacken their private character, and afford excuse
for their trial.
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