Born on 12th February 1809, Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. Lincoln got married to Mary Todd on 4th November 1802. 1832 was a year of Abrahams’ downfall. During that year, Abraham was a candidate for the state’s legislature. However, he did not succeed. Later in the same year, Lincoln was the newly appointed postmaster of Salem. Lincoln later became Salem’s country surveyor. Notably, Lincoln ran for the legislature of Illinois, but all was in vain. After a period of two years, he was voted to the Lower House as a Whig and remained in power for four years. After his term, Lincoln decided to vie for the US presidency and joined the Republican Party that was just newly formed. After being chosen to compete against John C. Breckenridge, Lincoln won the election to become the new president of the United States. After Lincoln ascended to the presidency, Booth was not happy with his leadership and decided to plot how he would kill him ( O'Reilly & Dugard, 2011).
Booth and his fellow assassins’ initial plans were to kidnap the president. The three fellows (Booth, Powell, and Atzerodt) discussed how they would kidnap Lincoln. After the kidnap, the president would be held, taken to Richmond and seized in exchange for the soldiers in the prison camps. Booth started hiring a gang of conspirators and after several months, Booth had already hired Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, Michael O Laughlen, David Herold, Samuel Arnold, and John Surratt. On 15th March 1865, Booth met with his group at Gautier’s Restaurant in Pennsylvania to plot Lincoln’s assassination ( O'Reilly & Dugard, 2011). Since Abraham was fond of watching performances in theaters, Booth learned that on 17th March 1865, Lincoln was to attend a play at Campbell’s hospital near Washington. Booth thought that was the perfect opportunity to kidnap the president, but he later learned that the president would not be attending the show.
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On 11th April Lincoln presented his last speech at the white house. Booth, Powell, and Herold were among the audience. Booth was irritated by the president’s speech on giving the former slaves their rights. Booth was angered by this and promised that to be Lincoln’s last speech. On 14th April, Booth went to Ford Theatre to collect his mail and learned that the president was to attend a performance at the Ford Theater in that evening. Booth seized that chance and quickily executed his plan assassinate the president ( Gunderson, 2015).
Booth’s effort to kill the president was successful this second time and thus, Lincoln met his untimely death on 14th April 1865 where he got murdered while watching a presentation at American cousin, Ford’s Theater. Lincoln’s assassination happened at a time when the civil war had ended merely five days ago. Witnesses documented that as the president watched Laura Keen’s comedy, a dark figure entered the theater through the door on the balcony and hit the president in the back of his head. His assassination occurred after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, was the individual responsible for the president’s assassination. Booth, together with George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell intended to kill Abraham Lincoln, the US President, William H. Seward, the state’s secretary and Andrew Johnson, the vice president. As discussed above, the motivation for planning to kill these three leaders was to bring disorder to the country and take the advantage of the instability to coup the Federal government ( Gunderson, 2015) .
After the president was shot, a doctor, who was in the house, went to the box where the president was sitting. After an examination, the doctor realized that the bullet entered through his left ear to his right eye. The injuries sustained were serious in that the president got paralyzed and developed breathing difficulties. Within no time, Lincoln was rushed to the hospital for further care. However, the efforts of the doctors were futile. The president died nine hours late on 15th April 1865 at 7.22 A.M ( O'Reilly & Dugard, 2011).
Although it was unfortunate that Abraham got assassinated in this plot, the attempts to kill vice president and the secretary of the state did not succeed. Seward was attacked by Booth’s friend, Lewis Paine (Powell). Paine succeeded to get near Seward using a trick to be allowed by the guards to get to Seward’s mansion. Paine claimed that he had a delivery medicine from Seward’s doctor. Fredrick, Seward’s son, was beaten mercilessly as he tried to save his father. Paine Slashed Seward’s throat twice and escaped thinking that he had killed him. After the attack, Seward lay in bed for several months in order to recover from the injuries sustained from this attempted murder ( O'Reilly & Dugard, 2011).
Atzerodt made no efforts to slay Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward and his attempts to kill him failed. After the incident, Herold fled from the city and used the same route that Booth used to flee. Herold and Booth met in Maryland where they met their death ( Gunderson, 2015) . A secret service was hired ten days after Lincoln’s death to investigate his murder. After it was found out that John Wilkes Booth was the mastermind behind Lincoln’s assassination, the secret service made efforts to find and kill the assassin. On 15th April, the secret service found Booth and Herold hiding in a barn in the rural areas of Virginia. Herold gave up while Booth refused to come out of the Ban and the soldiers decided to set the barn on fire. Booth was still stubborn and did not surrender. Eventually, he was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Although the sergeant was not given the mandates of killing Booth, he feared that Booth would shoot the soldiers hence decision to shoot him.
After few days, the federal government arrested the Booth’s co-accomplices except John Surratt. Booth’s co-accomplices were tried by a military tribunal and were found guilty. Powell, Herold, Mrs. Suratt and Atzerodt were hanged on 7th July 1865. Arnold, Dr. Mudd, and O’Laughlen were given a life sentence. Edman was a stagehand at Ford Theater and was also indirectly involved in the murder of the president since he helped Booth to escape, he received a six-year sentence in prison. In the modern society, the convictions of Dr. Mudd and Mary Surratt are widely debated. John Surratt fled to Canada and later went to Europe where he was arrested and judged in a civil court.
According to Schwartz (1991), Lincoln‘s assassination caused a lot of unrest in the country. Lincoln’s death is viewed as a significant event in the American history. Additionally, his death was also known to bring him acknowledgment and respect that he never received while he was alive. Although he was criticized when he was alive, after his death, it is ironical how the Americans started to respect and love him ( Schwartz, 1991).
Annotated Bibliography
O'Reilly, B & Dugard, M. (2011). Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever . Holt, Henry &Company, Inc.
As historical fiction, O’Reilly and Dugard book explains gives an account of the happenings that took place at the end of the Second World War. Frade explains how Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and how John Wilkes Booth was captured after the murder of the president. The book is divided into four parts where total war was the first and describes the last days of Civil War where Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee become locked in the battle. The reader is introduced to a character known as John Wilkes Booth who was a Northerner and Southerner sympathizer and his plans of killing Lincoln. The book explains the initial plot of John and his fellow conspirers was to kidnap the president, but the plan later changed to assassinating him. In the third Chapter the Long Good Friday, the book explains how 14th April 1865 was an unforgettable day in the American history since it is when Abraham was assassinated. Lincoln died the next day in the morning. The Chase is the final section of the book and it ends with his demise. The book provides useful information and gives the reader the chronological order of events surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Gunderson, J. (2015). The Wound is Mortal: The Story of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Capstone Press.
Gunderson, in his book, “The Wound is Mortal: The Story of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln” books talks about how Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States was assassinated. Lincoln never thought that someone would kill him. According to Gunderson, Lincoln was murdered on 14ty April 1865 while watching a play at Ford’s Theater by John
Schwartz, B. (1991). Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination. Social Forces , 70, (2): 361.
Schwartz article focused on discussing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and how the Americans behaved after his death. According to the author, the Americans did not love Lincoln when he was alive. The irony of the matter is that the Americans started loving him after his death. The book could provide useful information for any person who needs to know about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Thus, it would act as a useful source where anyone would base his or her claims on. Wilkes Booth, an actor in the same theater. According to the author, John had others had been planning for a long time how they would kill the president. Gunderson’s book engages the reader to think about Booth and the planned conspiracy.
References
O'Reilly, B & Dugard, M. (2011). Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever . Holt, Henry &Company, Inc.
Gunderson, J. (2015). The Wound is Mortal: The Story of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln . Capstone Press.
Schwartz, B. (1991). Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination. Social Forces , 70, (2): 361.
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