Summary Of Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

This paper will first talk about what was happening the North and South at the time like the mood and tone of the war. In the second paragraph it will present statements from some of the conspirators like their motive and just what they had to say about their actions. After that, it will go in detail about the facts of the assassination including when, where, and how it happened. Next, we will talk about the aftemath of this event and how it changed America and they way the nation protect our president now days. Finally, the conclusion on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the other victims. Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the only one to be murdered or attempted to be murdered on April 14th, 1865. He was one of many on the hitlist for a group
of conspirators. The war was still going on near April of 1865. Abraham Lincoln had just gave his Second Inagural Address on March 4th, 1865. This speech was saying that we need to treat everyone equal for the nation to heal. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” After that, the war was ending very quickly. On April 9th, 1865, Lee surrenders to Grant at the Appomattox Court House essentially ending the war. The South wasn’t very happy about this. They still wanted to fight for their right to have slaves.
After the end of the war, in 5 days time, Lincoln would be assassinated by a group of conspirators. But who were these people? The first is the mastermind and the one we all remember, John Wilkes Booth. He is the one who went to Ford Theater on April 14th, 1865 to shoot Lincoln in the back of the head to end the president’s life. So why would he do something like that? What was his motive? Booth said “I love peace more than life. Having loved the Union beyond expression.” in a letter given to John S. Clarke, Booth’s brother in law, for safe keeping in 1864. Had this letter actually been read, Abraham Lincoln could still be alive. Booth also hated hearing Lincoln talk about how black people should get to vote in a speech Lincoln gave on April 11th, 1865 in front of the White House celebrating the surrender of Robert Lee at Appomattox. Another person from the group was John Suratt. John Suratt was a Confederate spy. He was introduced to Booth by Dr. Sameul Mudd. John Suratt’s motive to help kidnap or kill Lincoln was that if he helped Booth, he would get Confederate prisoners. This would be beneficial because he was a Confederate Spy. Mary Suratt was the mother of John Suratt. She was the only female conspirator. She had a unique assett to the plan. Mary had a safehouse where Booth and the others devised the plan in. Another big assett to this plan was Lewis Thornton Powell aka Lewis Payne. Payne was a Confederate soldier veteran and head of Georgia’s Klu Klux Klan. He was very valuable because of his strength and size. “Well, if you're going to kidnap a President who was six-foot-four, you better have a guy his size.”(Footnote) said Boyle, the President of the Delaware Valley Civil War Round Table and the April 1865 Society. Other conspirators in the group were David Herold, George Atzerodt, Dr. Sameul Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler. So how was the assassination(s) going to go down? First, it wasn’t suppose to be a assassination. It was going to be a kidnapping and Lincoln be held for ransom for Confederate soldiers in Richmond, Virginia to be released from Union prison camps. To do this, Booth and other conspirators were going to capture him as he was going to a play at a hospital near his summer home in Washington. This plan was unsuccessful due to Lincoln going to another capital function. http://www.historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews142.shtml)But the purpose of this paper is to tell you the other unknown vicims people don’t speak of. These include Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secetary of State William Seward. Booth was to kill President Lincoln and Powell and Harold were to kill Seward. Atzerdot was to kill the Vice President. All these murders were to happen at 10:15 pm. So off went Powell and Harold to kill Seward. They arrived at his house in Washington DC. As the assissitant to Powell, he stayed outside with the horses and was going to lead him out of the city. Powell went into the house and fought past a servant and Seward’s son Frederick. He tried to shoot Frederick but the gun would’nt fire so he bashed him on the head with it instead. Once past them, he went into the room of Seward and fought past a male nurse and Seward’s daughter. Finally, he jumped on the bed and stabbed Seward with a 12 inch Bowie knife. He left by leaving the room and slashing a State Department courier’s throat.
But Harold had left Powell after hearing noises and basically ditched him. Powell would go around Washington for days, hiding in the Congressional cemetery at night. Atzerdot was suppose to kill the vice president but couldn’t because he got too drunk and could’t carry out the murder. He proceeded to walk around the town all night. So that left Booth to kill Lincoln. The plan was to assassinate him at the showing of Our American Cousin at Ford Theater at 10 pm on April 14th,1865. Lincoln was in the president box with his wife Mary, an officer named Henry Rathbone and his fiance Clara Harris. Booth slipped into the box with ease because the guard had left to get a drink at the bar and shot Lincoln in the back of the head with his .44 caliber pistol and jumped off the stage yellimg “Sic simper tyrannis”, Virginia’s state motto. Booth broke his left leg/shin in the process but escaped on horseback. Lincoln was paralysed and tooken to a nearby house which was the Peterson’s house. The doctor said he wouldn’t make it through the night. He died at 7:22 a.m on April 15th,1865. The world was devasted and all around the nation people mourned
and buisnesses closed and people that were happy at the end of the Civil War now were shocked to hear of this assassination.
Union soldiers went to look for Booth. Booth and Herld crossed the Anacostia River and after that headed toward southern Maryland. They stopped at Samuel Mudd’s house to treat Booth’s leg and were trying to go to Virginia by boat. The soldiers found them in a farmhouse in Virginia. They set it on fire to flush the conspirators out. Booth stayed inside and an officer eventually shot Booth in the neck in self defense because he thought Booth was reaching for his gun to shoot him. Booth after 3 hours finally died but before he passed away he mummered the words “Useless, Useless” while looking at his hands. On July 7th, 4 of the conspirators were hung to death. These include Lewis Thorton, Mary Suratt, David Herold, and George Atzerodt. The other 4 involved were sent to prison for a life long sentence. John Suratt escaped. “He did avoid capture for a while in Rome, but eventually someone recognized him," said Boyle. "He was arrested, but escaped and took a ship to Alexandria, Egypt, where authorities were waiting for him. He was sent back to the U.S. and tried for the same crimes as his mother. But this time it was a civil trial that resulted in a hung
jury. John Surratt got off and lived until 1916." So how did the assassination of Lincoln affect the nation? Lincoln’s death left an inexperienced President in Andrew Johnson. It also changed the Reconstruction Plan. Lincoln wanted to unite the country with its people,states, and governments on the same page. He died trying to do this and without him the country couldn’t decide on the Reconstruction plan. This would of been a great thing for the country after the war. Also black codes and martial laws were put into place. If Lincoln had been alive this would never happen. Now “Radical Republicans” were now in charge of the Congress. They’re plan for Reconstruction was too harsh for the South. They basically wanted to destroy the South and this created tension between the South and North. So in conclusion, before Lincoln was assassinated, the war was ending. This was a good thing. But obviously people weren’t happy about this. This included John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators. They wanted revenge. So that’s how the whole thing started. John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators made up the plan to assassinate to Lincoln. It was actually to kidnap him but the plan was ruined by him going to this play. So on the night of April 14th,1865, the face of the nation changed. We had lost one of our most influential presidents and an activist trying to change the hatred towards slaves and African-Americans. After Lincoln’s death, the way we view slavery and the South has somewhat changed. Even though slavery has ended, we still have racism in the home of the free and the brave.