The United States has faced several hurdles in coming to be one of the greatest nations in the world. The history of the country is peddled by several incidences that have significantly altered the path of the county and the world at large. Some of these incidences include the great migration to the American continent, civil wars and the drafting of the declaration of the independence by the founding father. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was also one of the most significant events in American history. On April 14th, 1865, on Good Friday, the president of the United States was assassinated by an actor. This research paper reviews the circumstances under which the president was assassinated. The paper will also evaluate the impact of the assassination on country.
Before the Assassination
The United States was enthralled in a civil that lasted nearly four years between 1861 and 1865. The war sparked by the election of Abraham Lincoln, a known antislavery proponent, to presidency in late 1860. However, this did not rest well with the southern States who relied on slaves to till their huge farms (Boyd, 24). This created a huge rift in United States as two factions emerged. The southern states, about 11 in number, sought to secede from the United States and formed a new front called the Confederation of United States. On the other hand, twenty five northern states united against the secessionist southern states. The northern states referred themselves to as the Union.
However, different experts have divergent views on the causes of the war. While the southern states were fighting to secede, the northerners were fighting to avert a looming breakup of the new nation (Hall, 23). Southern states were mainly cotton growing states that relied on slavery in order to manage the labor intensive jobs. However, during the drafting the American constitution, one of the major compromises that were arrived at touched on slavery and that it was to be limited only within the existing southern states (Morse). But as the country’s political front changed the Republican Party wanted to outlaw slavery. By Abraham Lincoln winning the 1960 elections, southern states considered it a point-of-no-return for the war. In 1861, before the new administration could take over office, southern states declared their secession and were ready to go war to defend their new nation (Linder). War ensued and engulfed the nation for nearly four years with each side of the United States not willing to cede any grounds.
End of the war
After about four years of war and long hours of negotiations, the southern army led by the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert Lee surrendered to the Union forces marking the end of the civil war. The United States had been freed of long battle that was proving to be very costly on both human lives and physical resources (Williams).
However, a famous stage actor known as John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt and David Herold planned to stifle the efforts of the government in united the States (Linder). The plan was to kill the president Abraham Lincoln, the Vice President Andrew Johnson and the secretary of state William H. Seward. Booth and his co-conspirators assumed that by eliminating the top three leaders of the government they would have ended the continuity of the administration and that the country would revert back to a civil war.
Initial plan
Before the end of the civil war, southern states had suffered huge losses and proposed a prisoner exchange with the northern army. The commanders of the northern army were not keen to go through with the exchange of prisoners of war as very few prisoners were held by the southern forces as compared to prisoners in the north. Booth, a southerner and sympathizer of the confederation, agreed to be recruited by a group called the Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore (Morse, 38). This was a group of southerners who were proponents of the secessionist ideals. Booth was able to recruit other members in order to execute a plan.
The initial plan was to kidnap the president and hand him over to the Confederate Army. While the northerners viewed that the prisoner exchange would only prolong the war, the southerners also viewed that their men in captivity were facing deplorable conditions. To this end, Booths’ plan to kidnap the, president would have probably coerced the northern armies to agree to prisoner exchange. On March 17th, 1865 Booth was informed that the president would be attending a play at the Campbell Military Hospital. Booth mobilized his men to stage a possible abduction in of the president on his way back from the hospital. The plan was not to go through as the president eventually failed to attend the play at the hospital (Williams).
Meanwhile, as Booth was plotting to kidnap the president, the Union armies were making progress against the confederates. The capital at Richmond Virginia had fallen into the union armies by April 3rd. Confederation armies had surrendered to the union armies and thus the president hosted a dinner at the White House. In this event, Booth was able to attend the speech in which the president proposed enfranchising former slaves. This was angered Booth furiously and decided on assassination. Booth was infuriated by the possibility of black slaves gaining American citizenship.
Assassination
On the morning of April 14th, the president was reported to be very happy and cheerful. The secretary of Treasury noted in his remarks that "I never saw Mr. Lincoln so cheerful and happy" (Hall,64). The president was abnormally happy a man who had been known to be concerned about the state of affairs soon after the civil war. The president had just begun his second term in office and still faced many challenges in uniting the states.
On the other side Booths had started his day at the stroke of midnight as he lay in his hotel room pondering on what to do. In the letter to his mother, Booth notes that their southern cause looks all but over and that ‘something decisive and great must be done (Linder). In the morning, Booth went to visits Ford Theatre to pick up his letters. While meeting his brother John Ford who owned the theatre, he learned that President Lincoln would attend the play Our American Cousin at the theatre later that day. Booth would find this to be the perfect chance for him to take the “decisive” action that he had longed for.
Booth organized to get some guns and also meet his co-conspirators in light of the new knowledge of the Presidents’ whereabouts that evening. Lewis Powell agreed to kill Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, with guidance of Herold to the residence. Similarly, Atzerodt was to kill the Vice President at his residence at the Kirkwood Hotel. Booth was to kill the President.
The president arrived at the theatre a bit late and soon settled at the presidential box. The box was an enclosure with two seats on the front of the box. It was supposed to be guarded by a policeman who had been found to be very curious. The policeman, John Frederick Parker, is said to have left the box and it is not clear where he had veered to. Additionally, Booths’ celebrity status allowed him much access behind the theatre scenes. Some argue that it was assumed Booth was calling on the president and this did not warrant much attention (Linder).
With the policeman away and celebrity actor in the theater, Booth would easily access the presidential box. Booth knew the play by heart and waited for the moment when the actor on stage would indulge the audience in one of the funniest scenes in the play. When the play finally got this point Booth pushed the door to the Box and shot the president with a derringer pistol. He shot the president at the back of his head behind the left ear. The president was pushed forward from his chair and lay fatally wounded. The First Lady who was with him at the time screamed for help.
In the mayhem, Booth was able to use the decoration of the box to escape from the box and onto the stage. The audience did not know what was happening until the heard the screams from the presidential box. Chaos ensued in the theatre and Booth was able to push himself out and onto a waiting horse. He fled towards the Navy Yard Bridge where he was to meet his co-conspirators.
The president lay wounded in the head and two doctors in the audience made their way into the presidential box. They managed to remove the lodged bullet from his head and keep him breathing till the next morning at 7.22 when the president died. He was fifty six years old.
Aftermath
President Abraham Lincoln was the first president of the United States to be assassinated. This was the first case in which a sitting head of state to be killed while in office. While a similar attempt had been attempted on the life of President Andrew Jackson in 1835, none of the previous attempts had actually succeeded. Following his death, the vice President would take over office. However President Andrew Johnsons’ tenure was very hard making him one of the most unpopular presidents of his time. The secretary of state William Seward was to continue to serve in the same capacity through to 1868. He is also noted for successfully managing to negotiate the purchase of Alaska from Russia.
Conclusion
All the conspirators in the assassination plots were apprehended and tried in a military court. They were later hanged in a public center at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary. The United States emerged from the assassination as a united country that praised the man Abraham Lincoln.
Works Cited
American Express. Conspiring to Assassinate an American President. 15 April 2011. 20 April 2012
Boyd, Carl. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: The True Story Your Teacher Did Not Tell You. New Jersey: Trafford Publishing, 2011.
Hall, Newman. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Boston : BiblioBazaar, 2011.
Linder, Douglas. Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators 1865. 2000. 20 April 2012
Morse, John T. The Death of President Lincoln, 1865. 2009. 20 April 2012
Williams, Jeffrey S. The Lincoln Assassination: New research unravels old myths. April 2011. 20 April 2012
