Historical Portrayal of Abraham Lincoln - Essay Example

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s sixteenth President, was assassinated as the Civil War was ending and Reconstruction was still in the blueprint stages, a pivotal point in U.S. history. Lincoln’s vision of full emancipation of former slaves and a united country was subverted by his successor Vice President Andrew Johnson, a former Southern Senator, the only one to not vote for succession. Lincoln chose Johnson because of his differing political viewpoint as a part of his overall effort to unite the nation, its competing ideologies and prejudices. This discussion chronicles the Lincoln assassination, examines the killer’s motive and appraises the resulting repercussions to the nation. April 14, 1865 was a day of reserved celebration for President Lincoln, the government and citizens of the Union. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant less than a week earlier at Appomattox. Grant accepted Lincoln’s offer to attend a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. titled ‘Our American Cousin.’ However, Grant later was coerced into declining the invitation by his wife who did not want to spend the evening with Lincoln’s wife Mary who, affording respect due a First Lady, often displayed her eccentric personality. Maj. Henry Rathbone and fiancée Clara Harris accompanied the Lincolns in place of the Grants. When the Lincolns arrived, late, the play was delayed allowing the audience to applaud the First Couple’s entrance into the flag-draped box positioned in the rear right of the theater, above the audience. Lincoln sat facing the stage and at his back two doors, one of which had a small hole drilled in it previously by John Wilkes Booth. Booth was a somewhat famous actor who planned the assassination and later carried it out with relative ease because of the less than adequate security provided which, in retrospect, is a puzzling circumstance. “Despite the fact that Lincoln was roundly hated by thousands of defeated Southerners (he was receiving threats on his life every day), only one guard was posted outside this vestibule door, an alcoholic policeman named John Parker, who wandered off to get a drink before the performance was half over” (Wallechinsky & Wallace, 2005). Booth was involved in a conspiracy that included the murder of Lincoln, Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward who was attacked that same night as he lay ill but survived multiple stab wounds inflicted by Lewis Paine. The third conspirator, George Atzerodt, became inebriated that evening and did not attempt to kill Vice President Johnson as planned. Booth, knowing that a scene in the play would cause a loud reaction from the crowd, chose that moment, just after 10:00, to shoot the President in hopes that the crowd would drown out the noise of his pistol. As this scene in the third act drew near, Booth claimed to be a messenger, entered the vestibule that led to the Presidential box, took a steel bar that he had planted to block the door then peered through the hole in the box door, saw that his opportunity was at hand, opened the door and had time to take aim, shooting Lincoln in the head behind his ear (Wallchinsky & Wallace, 2005). Major Rathbone tackled Booth who stabbed Rathbone in the arm. Booth then jumped up on the box’s railing and leaped down onto the stage shouting, “sic semper tyrannus,” latin for “thus always to tyrants” (“Abraham Lincoln”, 2007). While leaping from the Presidential box, a spur on one of Booth’s boots caught in the flag decoration draping on the box’s exterior which caused him to lose his balance and land awkwardly on the stage, breaking his leg. Incredibly, despite a broken leg and being in the middle of a crowded theater in the middle of Washington D.C., Booth managed to escape through a rear door in the theater to a waiting horse. He eluded a national manhunt for 12 days before meeting his end by gunfire in a burning Virginia barn. Lincoln died the next morning in the house where he had been taken the night before, across the street form Ford’s Theater. Present at the time of his death was his wife and Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, who famously stated, “Now he belongs to the ages” (Wallechinsky & Wallace, 2005). Booth was considered a dashing and more than competent actor before he forever cemented his claim to fame. He, as did many other Southerners, supported slavery and was incensed by the carnage of both lives and property wrought by the Union Army during the war. The common belief then and even somewhat today is that the South had every legal and moral right to succeed from the Union and that they were illegally invaded and immorally decimated by the lawless regime headed by Lincoln. “Booth hated Lincoln and what he stood for, and was distraught by the destruction the war wreaked on the South” (Behe, 2006). Booth and his Confederate co-conspirators had originally planned to kidnap President Lincoln then use him as a bargaining tool for the South. Following Lee’s surrender, Southerners, including Booth were further enraged. The plan was altered from one of strategy to one of vengeance. Booth was described by his sister, Asia Booth Clarke, as a person with more than a modest ego which was fueled by his fame as an actor. “He thought he was destined for great things. He compared himself to William Tell, to Brutus and to others. I don’t think any one motive explains why (Booth) killed Lincoln, but I think a combination of personal glory, his hatred of Lincoln, his love of the South and the desire to help the South, his racism, his support of slavery – all these things combined compelled (Booth) to act” (Swanson, 2006). Following the assassination, the entire nation, including many of Lincoln’s political enemies, were in deep mourning to an extent not again experienced until November 22, 1963. Booth, during his brief time on the run, was obsessed with reading newspaper accounts of the assassination believing that he would be widely praised. To his great disappointment, he was instead reviled by people on both the North and South side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Had Lincoln survived the assassination attempt but been incapacitated, Secretary of War Stanton likely would have assumed the duties of President or at least played a large role in the direction of the government evidenced by the high-level decisions he made during the time Lincoln was alive after he had been shot. It wasn’t until after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 that the 25th Amendment was passed which outlines the orderly transfer of Presidential power in case of incapacitation. Johnson would not have been automatically considered the President had Lincoln survived but assumed office upon Lincoln’s death. Booth’s bullet changed the nation because Johnson and Lincoln were often diametrically opposed regarding the reconstruction of the South and degree of civil liberties the freed slaves were to be afforded. “Johnson, who took office after Lincoln’s death, was the only Southern senator not to leave office upon secession. Lincoln had put him on the presidential ticket as a symbol of unity, but Johnson was a southern Democrat who was not sympathetic to Lincoln’s Republican Party or to helping the newly-freed slaves” (“What if”, 2007). Though Johnson, the lone Southern Senator who did not enlist his allegiance with the Confederacy, supported Lincoln’s efforts to win the Civil War, he often expressed that he was on the side of the Union but not abolition. Prior to picking Johnson to run on his second-term ticket, Lincoln had rewarded him for staying loyal to the Union by installing him as the Governor of the ‘rouge state’ Tennessee. During this time, just three years before assuming the Presidency, Johnson said in a speech to the citizens of Tennessee, “I believe slaves should be in subordination and I will live and die so believing” (“Andrew Johnson”, 2007). Johnson’s views on slaves were clearly in opposition to Lincoln’s stance as was his insistence that Ex-Confederates must be punished. Lincoln was calling for reconciliation prior to his death but the new President was calling for Confederate heads on a platter. According to Johnson, “Robbery is a crime; rape is a crime; treason is a crime; and crime must be punished. The law provides for it; the courts are open. Treason must be made infamous and traitors punished” (“Andrew Johnson”, 2007). Johnson used the presidency to further his own agenda of oppression and revenge on the South following the Civil War. His actions retarded the progression of Reconstruction and in many ways stopped it altogether. The remnants of the Johnson Presidency felt in the South lasted long after his death. The devastated South never received economic help that had been previously promised by Lincoln thus never fully recovered economically. The oppression of Blacks likely continued to a greater degree and for a longer period of time due to Lincoln’s assassination. The cumulative amount of human misery caused by Johnson is incalculable. The day Lincoln died, America, in terms of both the present and future, died a little bit too. References “Abraham Lincoln Biography.” (2007). Newspaper Archive.com. Heritage Microfilm, Inc. Available May 20, 2007 from “Andrew Johnson.” (May 12, 2007). Spartacus Educational. Available May 20, 2007 from Behe, Regis. (February 19, 2006). “Author evaluates motives behind Lincoln’s assassination.” The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Available May 20, 2007 from Swanson, James L. (February 2006). “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.” HarperCollins Publishers. Available May 20, 2007 from Wallechinsky, David & Wallace, Irving. (January 31, 2005). “Assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.” Part I. Trivia Library. Available May 20, 2007 from “What If Lincoln Lived?” (May 18, 2007). CBS News. Available May 20, 2007 from Read More