FW: GDG- "Loose Bolts Sink....."

[Tom Ryan]

<<I don't know if or when the US government made a connection with Benjamin,
but the correspondence is in the OR.>>

	So they would have known at least by the 1880's or not long thereafter when
the OR was being compiled.  By then the issues of East Tennessee and
Lincoln's assassination may have been water over the dam, so to speak, in
the public's mind (John Surratt's case being an example of this).  Since
Benjamin died in 1884, there is no way of knowing whether he would have
changed his mind and returned to the U.S. with the feeling that all was
forgiven and forgotten.

	As far as I know, Benjamin never wrote his memoirs or left any other record
of his activities during his tenure as Secretery of State and involvement in
secret service operations.  As a result, we are left to wonder just what his
association with Booth was, and what orders, if any, were passed to him
through Confederate agents in the U.S. and Canada.

	Of course, we do know that John Surratt was one of Benjamin's couriers
between Richmond and Confederate agents in the U.S. and Canada, and that
Benjamin had sent Surratt to Canada in March 1865.  As soon as the
assassination took place, Surratt went into hiding in Canada, then fled to
Europe and lost himself among the masses under an assumed name.  This kind
of thing tends to fuel curiosity about whether there was a connection
between Richmond authorities and the assassination of Lincoln.

Tom Ryan