John Armor Bingham was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
John Bingham
John Bingham (left), along with Joseph Holt (center) and Henry Burnett (right), were the three prosecutors in charge of the Lincoln assassination trial.
Bingham and Thaddeus Stevens appearing before the Senate to inform the Senate of the House's vote to impeach President Andrew Johnson
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.
John Wilkes Booth assassinating Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre
Carte de visite of the actor John Wilkes Booth, c. 1865
The Surratt boarding house, where the conspirators planned
Ford's Theatre