Abraham Lincoln's Assassination Research Paper
L.B.
U.S. History 1 H 4B
11 April 2013
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
The sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated on April 14, 1865. This period of time in American history will forever be marked by his tragic death. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer at Ford’s Theater. Booth, along with Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt planned to bring chaos among the federal government and have the Confederacy step in to overthrow them (Boardman, 1865). His plan succeeded in the death of President Lincoln. However, his scheme to overthrow the government backfired. Lincoln was not viewed very well by the people before his assassination. However, due to Booth’s decision to murder Abraham Lincoln, …show more content…
he was and still is considered and American hero because of his assassination.
Abraham Lincoln grew up through a modern background of the 1800s. According to an unknown author of “Abraham Lincoln” on the history channel website, he was born in Hardin County, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. However, when he was seven, his family moved north to Indiana. Even though public education was newly popular at the time, Lincoln had very limited education due to the fact that he needed to provide for his family on their farm. Later in his life, Lincoln became more involved in politics after moving to Salem, Illinois. Lincoln soon established his political beliefs, became a member of the Whig party and was against slavery from the very beginning of his political career. The first job Lincoln had in government was as an Illinois states legislature in 1834. Due to his lack of education, Lincoln had to teach himself law. He moved to Springfield and became a lawyer. This is where he earned his legendary nickname “Honest Abe.” He soon met his future wife Mary Todd and they married in 1842. Lincoln moved to Washington D.C. and the election into the House of Representatives in 1846. Even though Lincoln was not very well known in the elections at this time, he soon became popular over a series of debates between him and a political rival Stephen Douglass. In addition to his great ability of persuasion, Lincoln also won the northerners over with his anti-slavery beliefs as well. Over time, Lincoln was building a reputation for himself that divided the nation in half. The northern half of the nation loved Lincoln and his beliefs because they were mainly abolitionists. Seven southern states, according to “American Civil War”, seceded from the Union after Lincoln was elected in 1860. This essentially proves the point of Lincoln not being liked by many American citizens of the 1860’s. Although the main reason for the Civil War was over slavery, many people forget that the nation was suffering from other disagreements as well. In an unknown author’s brief synopsis of the American Civil War, it states that many decades of building tension between the north and the south were due to issues such as state government versus federal authority and settlement west. Those states that seceded in 1860 called themselves the Confederate States of America and were quickly joined by more states after the war. “The Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil,” expresses the unknown author of “American Civil War.” As the president, Lincoln had no problem supporting the north openly and honestly. His opinion on slavery had been known from the beginning. Most of what he wanted to come out of his presidency was equality for the slaves. On April 9, 1865, Lincoln succeeded in fulfilling his dream for America by bringing the Union to victory. From the words of James Gilden in Good Brother Bad Brother, that day was a great day for the Union sympathizers. In the small town of Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Everywhere in the south, there was much mourning to say the least. On the other hand, the American Flag flew proudly in the north in every town, large and small. There was much celebration that the Union’s quest for freedom had finally come to a successful end (1). John Wilkes Booth was a southern supporter. Gilden explain the childhood of Booth in Good Brother Bad Brother. He grew up in Virginia coming from a background of theater. He had a comfortable childhood and was brought up on a strong appreciation for literature. His father was not around a lot because his job took place during the fall, winter and spring at the theater. However, when he came home in the summer, he would enjoy the company of his children passing on a good influence (7-9). Overall, Booth came from a family that did not set examples of terribly bad behavior. This has made many people question how John Wilkes Booth was brought to the decision to kill President Lincoln.
The unknown author of “Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination” shows that Booth’s original scheme was to kidnap the President, hold him hostage and continue the exchange of prisoners-of-war. Ulysses S. Grant had suspended this policy earlier that year. However, these plans changed due to the fact that Lincoln failed to show up at the spot where Booth planne for the kidnapping to happen. This, along with surrendering of the Confederacy made the men desperate and Booth and his co-conspirators decided to kill the President and his closest men. They hoped to create confusion and overpower the government, thereby giving the Confederacy a chance towards revenge. When Booth found out that the President as well as General Grant would be attending the theater on April 14, he decided to take action. As an actor himself, he knew the theater well as he had performed there several times before.
On the afternoon of April 14, Booth went to his boarding house, which was managed by Mary Surratt. He asked her to deliver a package to her other inn in Surrattsville, Maryland. Booth also had Mary order the innkeeper at the Maryland tavern prepare the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the inn. Later that day, Booth met with Powell and Atzerodt and they all reviewed the plan of killing the top three men in the Union government. They planned to kill the three men simultaneously, with Booth taking the responsibility of shooting Lincoln with his gun and then stabbing with his knife.
That night, while the play was being enacted on stage, Booth entered the theater. He carefully made this way towards where President Lincoln was sitting. His private booth was left unguarded at the time. During a loud scene, he came up from behind him and shot him in the back of his head. Booth got into a quick rustle with Henry Rathbone, who had been in the booth with the Lincolns, then fled from the scene, leaving the President unconscious but still alive. Several doctors were on the scene and they tried to revive Lincoln but did not succeed. They carried the unconscious President to a nearby house. He lived out his last moments without ever recovering from the bullet wound. President Lincoln passed away the next morning of April 15 at around 7 in the morning.
Abraham Lincoln was the first President of the United States to be assassinated and his death caused a lot of stir throughout the country.
His assassination is looked upon not only as a significant event in the history of the United States, but also as completely changing the perspective of how the country, and the world, viewed, and would continue to view, Abraham Lincoln as a person and as a President (Hall, 1865). It is a fact that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln changed him from being known as a controversial President to a sacred symbol of his society. His assassination was only the beginning of this transformation. The amount of work and the attention that he received after his death on his funeral and the events that followed made him into even more of a hero than ever before. Many Americans had condemned Lincoln to being endlessly criticized of his wartime policies and reconstruction plans. This is why it was so much more interesting to see that many people acted so differently upon his death even though they felt completely different about the man and his presidency. It is important to take a look at how death and the ensuing funeral arrangements completely changed the way the nation viewed the man and how Lincoln’s image was forever changed in the eyes of the Americans then and beyond (Schwartz 1991, …show more content…
343).
Up until the day that Lincoln died, many American citizens could find at least one thing wrong with Lincoln. Almost everyone had a problem with the way he had dealt with the Civil War and many people had been criticizing his various policies. Even though Lincoln had been reelected to the presidency about six months before, many people had changed their minds about him. The Union had been losing terribly at the beginning of the war and it was only because Lincoln was able to have many crucial victories, convincing people to vote for him. Even then, many people were of the opinion that Lincoln did not win the election because people liked him, but it was mostly because the Americans disliked his opponent, George McClellan (Oates 1977, 461). The war ended in the winter of 1864 but people continued to dislike Lincoln, for not only what he had done to the country, but also how his policies had affected the economy of the nation.
Many people also found it disgraceful and condemned Lincoln as a radical for his concerns about the black people of America. By showing his sympathies towards the blacks, Americans at the time believed Lincoln was mocking his own nation and that too at such a crucial and sensitive time. Just four days before he dies, Lincoln made a speech that had to do with the reentry of Louisiana into the Union and how the blacks would have limited suffrage. It has been reported that even Lincoln was very worried about this speech and was anxious as to how it would be received by the nation (Oates 1977: 461). This illustrated his own insecurities at the time and that he was not sure as to his position as a well-liked and respected president, also proving that people very openly disliked Lincoln (Schwartz 1991, 344-5).
But his assassination changed everything.
The attitude of people towards Lincoln changed radically after his murder. It was an occasion when the whole nation was perhaps for the first time facing such a calamity where everyone had been forced to think about the changing political situation of the country. At the same time, Lincoln’s funeral rites and processions were done on such a large and grand scale of symbolism that people starting to look at him in a different light. Even though people did not like him and his policies, there was an element of sympathy and people automatically started to show their affection for their President who was murdered so brutally and so publically. Nothing like this had ever happened and people were forced to feel sorry for Lincoln because they had no idea what to think. Plus, when Lincoln was killed, the nation was already in a state of heightened emotions, and this allowed for an even increased impact of his death upon the people. America saw him change from being a much criticized president to one of the most influential and powerful of all the US Presidents. People began to talk of his vigorous methods in the field during his time as the commander in chief during the Civil Way. Even the opponents who believed that his policies were unconstitutional and unconventional started to think of him as a great leader to did his country
well.
The South had just recently surrendered and many people took to the streets as a celebration. The businesses were interrupted, and there were many speeches, fireworks, and demonstrations in many parts of the country. The war had lasted for four years and now it was over. The North was ecstatic. At the same time, it was Easter time and holidays were coming up in a few days. And it was on the peak of this happiness and anticipation, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, that Lincoln was shot. And this news just put a halt on all the festivities and the celebration. People started gathering again all over the country, but this time it was not to celebrate but to mourn and to find out exactly what had happened in Washington (Schwartz 1991, 347).
During his life, Lincoln had a very hard time balancing the war and politics, but he was most successful in his measures and policies after his assassination. Lincoln was criticized as a President and his policies were condemned, and many of the Democrats labeled him as a tyrant for his flagrant ways. Yet, after his assassination, he was honored for his proscribed civil liberties. He came to be known as a very tolerant president with his critics and did the best to run his country in the most honorable manner.
Looking at all of his policies today, we find that Lincoln’s assassination was actually a great blow to the Americans, even though it brought him the respect and acknowledgement that he never received when he was alive. He was greatly criticized when he was alive but America started to love, respect, and to be grateful to only after his death (Schwartz 1991, 361).
Work Cited
“Abraham Lincoln.” 2013. The History Channel website. Mar 20 2013, 7:09 http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln.
“Abraham Lincoln 's Assassination.” 2013. The History Channel website. Apr 13 2013, 1:14 http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln-assassination. “American Civil War.” 2013. The History Channel website. Mar 20 2013, 7:10 http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war.
Boardman, George. 1865 . The Death of President Lincoln. Binghampton, N.Y.: F.N. Chase.
Hall, Gordon. 1865. President Lincoln 's Death: Its Voice to the People. Northampton, Mass.: Trumbull & Gere.
Oates, Stephen B. 1977. With Malice Toward None. Harper & Row.
Schwartz, Barry. 1991. “Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination,” Social Forces, 70, (2): 361.
U.S. History 1 H 4B
11 April 2013
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
The sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated on April 14, 1865. This period of time in American history will forever be marked by his tragic death. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer at Ford’s Theater. Booth, along with Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt planned to bring chaos among the federal government and have the Confederacy step in to overthrow them (Boardman, 1865). His plan succeeded in the death of President Lincoln. However, his scheme to overthrow the government backfired. Lincoln was not viewed very well by the people before his assassination. However, due to Booth’s decision to murder Abraham Lincoln, …show more content…
he was and still is considered and American hero because of his assassination.
Abraham Lincoln grew up through a modern background of the 1800s. According to an unknown author of “Abraham Lincoln” on the history channel website, he was born in Hardin County, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. However, when he was seven, his family moved north to Indiana. Even though public education was newly popular at the time, Lincoln had very limited education due to the fact that he needed to provide for his family on their farm. Later in his life, Lincoln became more involved in politics after moving to Salem, Illinois. Lincoln soon established his political beliefs, became a member of the Whig party and was against slavery from the very beginning of his political career. The first job Lincoln had in government was as an Illinois states legislature in 1834. Due to his lack of education, Lincoln had to teach himself law. He moved to Springfield and became a lawyer. This is where he earned his legendary nickname “Honest Abe.” He soon met his future wife Mary Todd and they married in 1842. Lincoln moved to Washington D.C. and the election into the House of Representatives in 1846. Even though Lincoln was not very well known in the elections at this time, he soon became popular over a series of debates between him and a political rival Stephen Douglass. In addition to his great ability of persuasion, Lincoln also won the northerners over with his anti-slavery beliefs as well. Over time, Lincoln was building a reputation for himself that divided the nation in half. The northern half of the nation loved Lincoln and his beliefs because they were mainly abolitionists. Seven southern states, according to “American Civil War”, seceded from the Union after Lincoln was elected in 1860. This essentially proves the point of Lincoln not being liked by many American citizens of the 1860’s. Although the main reason for the Civil War was over slavery, many people forget that the nation was suffering from other disagreements as well. In an unknown author’s brief synopsis of the American Civil War, it states that many decades of building tension between the north and the south were due to issues such as state government versus federal authority and settlement west. Those states that seceded in 1860 called themselves the Confederate States of America and were quickly joined by more states after the war. “The Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil,” expresses the unknown author of “American Civil War.” As the president, Lincoln had no problem supporting the north openly and honestly. His opinion on slavery had been known from the beginning. Most of what he wanted to come out of his presidency was equality for the slaves. On April 9, 1865, Lincoln succeeded in fulfilling his dream for America by bringing the Union to victory. From the words of James Gilden in Good Brother Bad Brother, that day was a great day for the Union sympathizers. In the small town of Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Everywhere in the south, there was much mourning to say the least. On the other hand, the American Flag flew proudly in the north in every town, large and small. There was much celebration that the Union’s quest for freedom had finally come to a successful end (1). John Wilkes Booth was a southern supporter. Gilden explain the childhood of Booth in Good Brother Bad Brother. He grew up in Virginia coming from a background of theater. He had a comfortable childhood and was brought up on a strong appreciation for literature. His father was not around a lot because his job took place during the fall, winter and spring at the theater. However, when he came home in the summer, he would enjoy the company of his children passing on a good influence (7-9). Overall, Booth came from a family that did not set examples of terribly bad behavior. This has made many people question how John Wilkes Booth was brought to the decision to kill President Lincoln.
The unknown author of “Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination” shows that Booth’s original scheme was to kidnap the President, hold him hostage and continue the exchange of prisoners-of-war. Ulysses S. Grant had suspended this policy earlier that year. However, these plans changed due to the fact that Lincoln failed to show up at the spot where Booth planne for the kidnapping to happen. This, along with surrendering of the Confederacy made the men desperate and Booth and his co-conspirators decided to kill the President and his closest men. They hoped to create confusion and overpower the government, thereby giving the Confederacy a chance towards revenge. When Booth found out that the President as well as General Grant would be attending the theater on April 14, he decided to take action. As an actor himself, he knew the theater well as he had performed there several times before.
On the afternoon of April 14, Booth went to his boarding house, which was managed by Mary Surratt. He asked her to deliver a package to her other inn in Surrattsville, Maryland. Booth also had Mary order the innkeeper at the Maryland tavern prepare the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the inn. Later that day, Booth met with Powell and Atzerodt and they all reviewed the plan of killing the top three men in the Union government. They planned to kill the three men simultaneously, with Booth taking the responsibility of shooting Lincoln with his gun and then stabbing with his knife.
That night, while the play was being enacted on stage, Booth entered the theater. He carefully made this way towards where President Lincoln was sitting. His private booth was left unguarded at the time. During a loud scene, he came up from behind him and shot him in the back of his head. Booth got into a quick rustle with Henry Rathbone, who had been in the booth with the Lincolns, then fled from the scene, leaving the President unconscious but still alive. Several doctors were on the scene and they tried to revive Lincoln but did not succeed. They carried the unconscious President to a nearby house. He lived out his last moments without ever recovering from the bullet wound. President Lincoln passed away the next morning of April 15 at around 7 in the morning.
Abraham Lincoln was the first President of the United States to be assassinated and his death caused a lot of stir throughout the country.
His assassination is looked upon not only as a significant event in the history of the United States, but also as completely changing the perspective of how the country, and the world, viewed, and would continue to view, Abraham Lincoln as a person and as a President (Hall, 1865). It is a fact that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln changed him from being known as a controversial President to a sacred symbol of his society. His assassination was only the beginning of this transformation. The amount of work and the attention that he received after his death on his funeral and the events that followed made him into even more of a hero than ever before. Many Americans had condemned Lincoln to being endlessly criticized of his wartime policies and reconstruction plans. This is why it was so much more interesting to see that many people acted so differently upon his death even though they felt completely different about the man and his presidency. It is important to take a look at how death and the ensuing funeral arrangements completely changed the way the nation viewed the man and how Lincoln’s image was forever changed in the eyes of the Americans then and beyond (Schwartz 1991, …show more content…
343).
Up until the day that Lincoln died, many American citizens could find at least one thing wrong with Lincoln. Almost everyone had a problem with the way he had dealt with the Civil War and many people had been criticizing his various policies. Even though Lincoln had been reelected to the presidency about six months before, many people had changed their minds about him. The Union had been losing terribly at the beginning of the war and it was only because Lincoln was able to have many crucial victories, convincing people to vote for him. Even then, many people were of the opinion that Lincoln did not win the election because people liked him, but it was mostly because the Americans disliked his opponent, George McClellan (Oates 1977, 461). The war ended in the winter of 1864 but people continued to dislike Lincoln, for not only what he had done to the country, but also how his policies had affected the economy of the nation.
Many people also found it disgraceful and condemned Lincoln as a radical for his concerns about the black people of America. By showing his sympathies towards the blacks, Americans at the time believed Lincoln was mocking his own nation and that too at such a crucial and sensitive time. Just four days before he dies, Lincoln made a speech that had to do with the reentry of Louisiana into the Union and how the blacks would have limited suffrage. It has been reported that even Lincoln was very worried about this speech and was anxious as to how it would be received by the nation (Oates 1977: 461). This illustrated his own insecurities at the time and that he was not sure as to his position as a well-liked and respected president, also proving that people very openly disliked Lincoln (Schwartz 1991, 344-5).
But his assassination changed everything.
The attitude of people towards Lincoln changed radically after his murder. It was an occasion when the whole nation was perhaps for the first time facing such a calamity where everyone had been forced to think about the changing political situation of the country. At the same time, Lincoln’s funeral rites and processions were done on such a large and grand scale of symbolism that people starting to look at him in a different light. Even though people did not like him and his policies, there was an element of sympathy and people automatically started to show their affection for their President who was murdered so brutally and so publically. Nothing like this had ever happened and people were forced to feel sorry for Lincoln because they had no idea what to think. Plus, when Lincoln was killed, the nation was already in a state of heightened emotions, and this allowed for an even increased impact of his death upon the people. America saw him change from being a much criticized president to one of the most influential and powerful of all the US Presidents. People began to talk of his vigorous methods in the field during his time as the commander in chief during the Civil Way. Even the opponents who believed that his policies were unconstitutional and unconventional started to think of him as a great leader to did his country
well.
The South had just recently surrendered and many people took to the streets as a celebration. The businesses were interrupted, and there were many speeches, fireworks, and demonstrations in many parts of the country. The war had lasted for four years and now it was over. The North was ecstatic. At the same time, it was Easter time and holidays were coming up in a few days. And it was on the peak of this happiness and anticipation, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, that Lincoln was shot. And this news just put a halt on all the festivities and the celebration. People started gathering again all over the country, but this time it was not to celebrate but to mourn and to find out exactly what had happened in Washington (Schwartz 1991, 347).
During his life, Lincoln had a very hard time balancing the war and politics, but he was most successful in his measures and policies after his assassination. Lincoln was criticized as a President and his policies were condemned, and many of the Democrats labeled him as a tyrant for his flagrant ways. Yet, after his assassination, he was honored for his proscribed civil liberties. He came to be known as a very tolerant president with his critics and did the best to run his country in the most honorable manner.
Looking at all of his policies today, we find that Lincoln’s assassination was actually a great blow to the Americans, even though it brought him the respect and acknowledgement that he never received when he was alive. He was greatly criticized when he was alive but America started to love, respect, and to be grateful to only after his death (Schwartz 1991, 361).
Work Cited
“Abraham Lincoln.” 2013. The History Channel website. Mar 20 2013, 7:09 http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln.
“Abraham Lincoln 's Assassination.” 2013. The History Channel website. Apr 13 2013, 1:14 http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln-assassination. “American Civil War.” 2013. The History Channel website. Mar 20 2013, 7:10 http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war.
Boardman, George. 1865 . The Death of President Lincoln. Binghampton, N.Y.: F.N. Chase.
Hall, Gordon. 1865. President Lincoln 's Death: Its Voice to the People. Northampton, Mass.: Trumbull & Gere.
Oates, Stephen B. 1977. With Malice Toward None. Harper & Row.
Schwartz, Barry. 1991. “Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination,” Social Forces, 70, (2): 361.