US History Semester 2 Final Project - Report April 14th, 1865 was a particularly heart-wrenching day in American politics. Abraham Lincoln, one of the United States' greatest presidents, was assassinated in Washington, DC. Since then, the country went into a prolonged period of mourning for the one who abolished slavery and preserved the fractured nation during the Civil War. The news of his death reverberated around the world and proved to be a test for the country and its constitutional plan of succession. The Confederacy's anticipations for victory were subsiding as the 1864 Presidential election drew near, and the tide of the war gradually turned towards the north. The chances of Lincoln's re-election were high, which filled Booth with rage towards the President as he blamed Lincoln for the Civil War and all of the South's problems. He eventually began …show more content…
and he was well known to John T. Ford, who was the owner. He cut a spyhole into the door of the presidential box earlier that day so that he could check that his intended victim had made it to the play and observe the box's occupants. When hysterical laughter began permeating the theater, Booth opened the door, crept forward, and shot the President from a near distance. The bullet struck the back of Lincoln's behind his left ear, entered his skull, fractured a part of it badly, and went through the left side of his brain before lodging just above his right eye. After violently stabbing Major Rathbone in the left forearm, Booth jumped from the President's box to the stage, where he raised his knife and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis", which is Latin for "Thus always to tyrants,". Others said that he added, "I have done it, the South is avenged!" Various sources state that Booth injured his leg when his spur snagged a decorative U.S. Treasury Guard flag while leaping to the
Booth had made his way into the theater and into the box where the president was sitting. He pulled out his pistol and knife. He had shot Lincoln while the theater was roaring with laughter so that no one would see booth. He bullet had hit Lincoln in his brain but didn’t kill him. Booth quickly stabs Lincoln before escaping by jumping out of the box. Booth run onto the stage and yelled “sic semper tyrannis” he also yelled “the south is avenged”. Sic Semper Tyrannis means thus always to tyrants.
This election caused the civil war because of what the southern states, the Confederate, perceived Lincoln to be. He was thought to be an abolitionist, meaning a person who wishes to abolish slavery completely. In fact Lincoln only wished to stop the spread of slavery, not to abolish it completely. He had no intention of changing the established social order in the south.
This was one of the deeply anxious election outcomes for both, the Republican and Pro-war Democrats. They both joint together and formed the National Union Party, which re-nominated Lincoln and selected Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee a prominent War Democrats. The campaign of 1864 was noisy and abusive. The threat posed by the Democratic Party, which met in Chicago in August. The Democrats came forward boldly and proclaimed the Civil War a failure, demanded the immediate ending of hostilities, and called for the convening of a national convention to restore the Union by negotiation with the Confederate government (American President: A Reference Resource). The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan, former commander of Union forces whom Lincoln had fired because of his failure to pursue Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army after the battle at Antietam in 1862. Some of the Radical Republicans were completely against Lincoln’s reelection (Mintz).
The sixteenth president of the United States was none other than “Honest Abe” himself, or better known as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln may have looked thin and weak physically, but he was actually pretty strong. He was also a fierce, sharp-witted lawyer and politician. He was never afraid of the challenges thrown at him. He held firmly to the things he believed to be right, even when the “majority” did not agree with him. Abraham Lincoln faced opposition as president because of his divergent moral views, ideas, decisions, and beliefs.
The memory of massive death was still in the front of everyone’s mind, hardening into resentment and sometimes even hatred. The south was virtually non-existent politically or economically, and searching desperately for a way back in. Along with these things, now living amongst the population were almost four million former slaves, who had no idea how to make a living on their own. They had been freed by the 13th amendment in 1865, and in the future became a great concern to many political leaders. Still, it was no secret that something had to be done. So, as usually happens, political leaders appeared on the stage, each holding their own plan of Reconstruction, each certain their ideas were the correct ones. One of the first people who came up with a blueprint for Reconstruction was the president at the time, Abraham Lincoln. The “Lincoln Plan” was a very open one, stating that after certain criteria were met a confederate state could return to the union. To rejoin, a state had to have ten percent of voters both accept the emancipation of slaves and swear loyalty to the union. Also, those high ranking officers of the state could not hold office or carry out voting rights unless the president said
During the Abraham Lincoln’s short time as president, he managed not only to save a nation deeply divided and at war with itself, but to solidify the United States of America as a nation dedicated to the progress of civil rights. Years after his death, he was awarded the title of ‘The Great Emancipator.’ In this paper, I will examine many different aspects of Lincoln’s presidency in order to come to a conclusion: whether this title bestowed unto Lincoln was deserved, or not. In order to fully understand Lincoln, it is necessary to understand the motives that drove this man to action. While some of his intentions may not have been for the welfare of slaves, but for the preservation of the Union, the actions still stand. Abraham Lincoln, though motivated by his devotion to his nation, made the first blows against the institution of slavery and rightfully earned his title of ‘The Great Emancipator.’
On the night of April 14th, 1865, at around 10:15 P.M., John Wilkes Booth, who was a famous actor and was also on the side of the Confederacy, sneaked into Ford’s Theater and assassinated Abraham Lincoln only five days after the end of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was only 56 years old, and he was the first president to be assassinated. Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O’Laughlen, Lewis Powell, and John Surratt were intended to help him with their original plan of kidnapping the president, but that plan was abandoned because President Lincoln never showed up to the Campbell Military Hospital, where he was meant to see a play. John Surratt’s mother, Mary Surratt, provided the men with a place to stay and moved to Washington D.C., and eventually Mary Surratt would be found guilty of assistance in the crime and executed, becoming the first woman to be put to death by the government.
At eight o’clock Booth and his three accomplices would meet at the Herndon House, less than a block from Ford’s Theater, to rehearse the assassinations. At 9:30pm Booth would leave his mare in the care of Edman Spangler in the alley behind Ford’s Theater and enter the theater through the backdoor, cross under the stage and emerge into another alley on Tenth Street where he would enter a saloon for a whiskey and chaser. At 10:10 pm in the Theater’s lobby Booth would then head to the main floor to survey the states box and audience. Calculating the best moment to strike, Booth would then leave the main floor to climb the stairs, cross the dress circle and enter the narrow hallway to the states box; where he would close and bar the previously fixed door. Peering through the peephole of the state’s box Booth could see the back of President Lincoln’s head. Booth would enter the states box and fire his derringer point-blank at Lincoln’s head and slash Rathbone’s arm with a dagger then flee the scene. In Booth’s getaway efforts he would break his left shinbone and reveal to the audience
In 1860, candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected President and had to preside over America’s greatest crisis. He was reelected in 1864 and saw the Civil War come to a successful conclusion. At his second inaugural address, Lincoln said “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; bind up the nations wounds.” Shortly after the war’s end, a fanatical Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated him.
Have you ever wanted something really bad? Like maybe a new toy or a higher job position? Imagine getting that thing you wanted most after working so hard for it and then losing it right after. It must be the worst feeling ever. Now put yourself in Abraham Lincoln’s shoes. You’ve just been inaugurated as president and days later you unfortunately get assassinated. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 in Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. (Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination). Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was an untimely event that slowed down the process of reconstruction after the Civil War (Effect of Lincoln Death on Reconstruction). The assassination increased the north’s hate towards the south (The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln pg.51). With Lincoln dead, there was no one to control the Radical Republicans who wanted to punish the south (Effect of Lincoln Death on Reconstruction). When Lincoln died he was replaced by President Andrew Johnson who had a bad relationship with the Congressmen (Effect of Lincoln Death on Reconstruction).
By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.
Booth lived an exciting life as an actor and a secret agent, but he wanted more. So he joined a conspiracy to kidnap the United States president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was an abolitionist and supported the north, so when he was elected president, it sent the confederates into rages of anger. They did not like Lincoln.
Contrary to what today’s society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South at this period in time. The South wanted to expand towards the West but Lincoln created a geographical containment rule keeping slavery in the states it currently resided in. Despite his trying to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed something different ”Lincoln claimed that he, like the Founding Fathers, saw slavery in the Old South as regrettable reality whose expansion could and should be arrested, thereby putting it on the long and gradual road ”ultimate extinction” (216). He believed it to be “evil” thus “implying that free southerners were evil for defending it”(275). Lincoln wanted to wipe out slavery for good and the South could sense his secret motives. By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil war.
Abraham Lincoln served in many facets of the United States government and was also a respected lawyer in Illinois. He was best known for being elected as the 16th President of the United States of America. As president, Lincoln guided the United States through one of the worst times in American history, the Civil War. From the start of his political career, Lincoln was instrumental in his efforts and eventual success in ending slavery in America. He was known for his public speaking abilities and delivered some of the most popular speeches in United States history. He lived a successful life before the presidency, during the presidency, and up to the time of his tragic death. His life was cut short when he was assassinated in 1865 while still serving as President of the United States. Lincoln was revered as one of the greatest presidents in American history. Prior to becoming one of the most powerful men in the world, Lincoln grew up in a poverty-stricken family.
In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the expansion of slavery into United States' territories. Lincoln won, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to secede had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, a total of 48.8% for the six. Outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincoln's inaugural address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A peace conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Conf...