Jacob Benton

Jacob Benton ( * August 19 1814 in Waterford, Caledonia County, Vermont; † September 29, 1892 in Lancaster, New Hampshire ) was an American politician. Between 1867 and 1871 he represented the State of New Hampshire in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Jacob Benton attended the public schools of his home and then to 1839 the Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester (Vermont ). Subsequently, he was even a few years working as a teacher. In 1842 he moved to Lancaster, New Hampshire. After studying law and its made ​​in 1843 admitted to the bar he began to work in his new hometown in this profession.

Since 1854 Benton was also politically active. He became a member of this year founded the Republican Party. Between 1854 and 1856 he was a member of the House of Representatives from New Hampshire. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in part in Chicago, was nominated on the Abraham Lincoln as a presidential candidate of the party. During the Civil War as a brigadier general Benton commanded a volunteer unit from New Hampshire.

1866 Benton was elected in the third district of New Hampshire in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of James W. Patterson on March 4, 1867. After a re-election in 1868 he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1871 two legislative sessions. In this time the armed his party with President Andrew Johnson for the Reconstruction was after the Civil War. This dispute led to the ultimately unsuccessful impeachment proceedings against the president. Also during Benton's time in Congress, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted.

In 1870 Benton declined to further candidacy for Congress. As a result, he again worked as a lawyer. He died on 29 September 1892 in Lancaster, and was also buried there.