Abraham Lincoln's Rebellion In The United States

“I can’t bring myself to believe that anyone has shot at me or will deliberately shoot at me with the deliberate purpose of killing me.”(Abraham Lincoln Was) Lincoln's own words, everyone loved Lincoln, well after he was dead, after America was finally done with that scythian, dictator, idiotic, squeaking, gorilla-like, lame excuse for a president. There were so many people deliberately shooting at Lincoln literally and figuratively, that one day, the Surratts, Herold, Powell, Booth, and Atzerodt took our 16th president’s life, and their own in the process.

Lincoln was a model wartime president, yet he was a dictator nonetheless. In his presidency, Lincoln imprisoned 14,401 Union citizens for speaking out against the cause of the war, against
him. Lincoln was, by definition a dictator; a ruler with total power over a country, a tyrant. In his five years in office, Lincoln discharged the Habeas Corpus, broke the Fifth amendment, subdued the Second amendment, denied the freedom of the press and constituted Martial Law. (Abraham Lincoln: Executive, Abraham Lincoln Was)

As the Civil War began to intensify, Lincoln had to change his position, he had to take extreme measures to keep his half of the nation in one piece.
Lincoln became an American dictator. Lincoln, in an effort to cease rebellion in union states ignored the Habeas Corpus, a citizen's right to a trial, a citizen's right to justice. In a certain case the New York Journal of Commerce published a section of it’s paper disrespecting President Lincoln. This act was seen as a chance to spark rebellion, the men who edited, published, and wrote in this paper were immediately arrested for treason and directly placed in prison, no trial, no rights, no freedom. These tyrannical acts would happen time and time again throughout Lincoln's reign, exactly like his decision to subdue the Fifth and Second Amendment. (Abraham Lincoln: Executive, Abraham Lincoln
Was)

The Fifth and Second amendments give us our rights to bear arms, and right to our life liberty and property. Our “American Dictator” had his soldiers storm the homes of his people, forcefully removing their lawful weapons, and reinstating the Quartering Act; An Act previously allowing English soldiers to take up quarters in the colonist homes. Throughout the harsh years of the Civil War, Northern and Southern citizens alike endured cruel treatment losing their property and homes. Lincoln, overall was probably one of the most hated Presidents in his time in office, and gave his people many reasons to assassinate him. (Abraham Lincoln: Executive, Abraham Lincoln Was)

Mary Surratt grew up as a small town catholic girl, living the quaint town of Waterloo, Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. Mary Surratt married her husband John Surratt, and few years later bore three children, Isaac, Ann, and John jr. Yet, all good things must come to an end, and John senior passed away, leaving Surratt a single mother of three children. For a woman who went out with such a bang, her life started so quietly. After Mr Surratt's iife came to an end in 1862, the family moved to Maryland and started up a tavern, post office, and polling center. A tavern that would become a confederate safehouse during the war. Her life only really began when she came into companionship with Booth. At first she had only involved herself with Booth to kidnap president Lincoln. Yet, after that her relationship with the actor only got deeper, her boarding house was soon used to hold meetings for confederates, house confederate soldiers, and ship personal mail for Lincoln’s Assassin. That was when her life went downhill leading to the inevitable gallows. (Cohen, History)

A few years after Mary Surratt and John Surratt Snr. married, in
1844, they had a beautiful baby boy, named John Surratt Jr., on the beautiful grounds of Congress Heights. He frolicked happily through his childhood with his brother and sister, Isaac and Ann. Then in the year 1862, reality came crashing down for the young Surratt: John’s father passed and his family moved to Washington D.C. In the first few months that the Surratt family inhabited the city, John’s single mother bought up a boarding house. The family, low on income, employed themselves to work the boarding home, and putting John in charge of running the post office. In 1864, years into his job, Surratt was introduced to a certain actor through a mutual friend, and after hearing of his previous plot to kidnap Lincoln, he joined Booth as his co-conspirator. (Cohen, History, John Surratt)

Wilkes’ third conspirator went by the name of David Herold, born to Adam and Mary Porter Herold in 1842 along with two brothers and seven sister. Early in his life, Davey lost both of his brothers at a young age, yet he still functioned normally throughout his childhood. Herold’s family was well off, financially,letting him partake in his yearly bird hunting events. After years of studying at GeorgeTown College, Davey became a renowned pharmacist, working with some of Washington's best druggist. Again, just like most of the other conspirators his life began dull, until his contact with Booth. Herold was first introduced to Wilkes for illegal purposes. Wilkes had drugs running in South America and thought Davey would grant him quick access to quinine if they had a successful friendship. In the end, David Herold and Wilkes Booth became partners for life, or until death, which took them much quicker than they expected. (N.p, Swanson)

Wilkes’ long list of conspirators did not end there, his next partner,
Lewis “Doc” Powell, better known as Lewis Paine, was the “teams” adept gunman.
Born in Randolph County, Alabama; Paine’s father, a well known Alabaman preacher and missionary, would never have guessed his son would would grow up to plot a murder. As a young child, Paine was kicked in the face by a farming mule, breaking his jaw and knocking out a molar. Paine was home educated, allowing the family to move from farm to farm, eventually landing them in Live Oak, Florida when Paine was fifteen years-old. Eventually, in the conspirators eighteenth year, Paine enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private, he was instantly his regiments best ranger. His connection to the army was what got Paine on Booth’s team. As a Southern sympathizer, not a fighter, Booth needed a soldier to work with him and one just so happened to live at a local D.C. boarding house. Paine and Booth went together like beans and rice, they were like brothers up until those very last moments of death. (N.p,
Swanson)

George Atzerodt was the coward of the group, the snitch, the man who sells out his accomplices. Born in 1835 Durma, Prussia, Atzerodt travelled to America with his folks for a new opportunity. He grew up in Montgomery County, Alabama, then later moved to Virginia where his father died. After Atzerodt’s father died, he and his brother, John, moved back to Maryland to set up a carriage repair shop. Although the business seemed to be profitable, the brothers eventually went their separate ways. George left for Maryland, while John stayed in Port Tobacco with the carriage repair shop. Atzerodt began ferrying his confederate brothers back and forth across the Potomac. Atzerodt first met Wilkes due to the kidnappers’ need for a ferry across the Potomac. After the failed attempt, the new conspirator was only woven thicker into Wilkes plot. (N.p, Swanson)

Lastly, there is Lincoln's final harbinger of death, one of America’s most infamous malefactor, John Wilkes Booth. Born in Bel Air, Maryland 1838, Booth was born into the acting business. His father Junius Brutus Booth, was an amazing, world-renowned actor, even at the height of his carrier Wilkes was nowhere near his father. Starting his acting at 17, Wilkes’ greatest setback was trying to live up to his father's name; All the way to the assassination of Lincoln, he would still be told by his friends that he was never as great as his father. Wilkes could have been seen as a coward, he never enlisted in the army, he only relayed a few messages during the Civil War. His whole plot against Lincoln was partly based off the fact that Wilkes needed to be more popular than his father. His other reason for killing Lincoln was once stated in a letter to his sister “This country was formed for the white, not the black man” this was Booths form of life, he believed in white supremacy, not equal rights. (John Wilkes, N.p)

Now the part of this plot missing is the plot, how would the six conspirators decapitate the American Government. Their plan was simple, the weapons would be stored at Surratt's Tavern in Surrattsville and would be the meet up point before their evacuation to Virginia. Paine would be in charge of killing Secretary Seward while he lied in his bed, due to a previous carriage accident. While Herold would stand guard in the street for Paine, and then lead him across the bridge to Maryland. George Atzerodt was sent to Vice President Johnson’s hotel room to kill that part of the government. Lastly, J. Wilkes ha the greatest role of all, a roll that would land him in history books for over a hundred years, killing President Lincoln. (John Wilkes, Swanson)

Yet this plan, this script was not followed perfectly, Lincoln’s assassins we're constantly faced with obstacles, big and small, leading to improvisation between the conspirators. Atzerodt, on his way to kill Johnson, realized the wrong of his ways, how dramatic his next act could have been, and fled to his cousin's home. Atzerodt was later apprehended by the manhunters after he gloated to his dinner mates about conspiring against the government. Powell, on the other hand, after almost kill Seward was caught in a lie with Mary Surratt at Surrattsville. Booth and Herold would make their ways to Virginia, yet after twelve-days, Booth would die, and Herold would be arrested by the manhunters. (John Wilkes, Swanson)

All in all, Herold, Atzerodt, Surratt, and Paine, were tried and and sentenced to death by hanging. These four assassins would finally get their just dessert. Yet, Lincoln was still, and that year, Good Friday would be renamed as Black Friday. The day Lincoln died is the worst day for the South, there was no way for them to easily gain redemption.