The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln - Essay Example

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Introduction It was explained that the demise of President Lincoln was one of the darkest moments in American history. Abraham Lincoln is an icon in American history also. Lincoln was described as a man who had a very short career in the Representatives House. He was thrown into the politics arena when he acquired a sliced piece of legislation that had threatened to expand the role played by slavery. At first Lincoln was not successful; in the end he won the nomination and eventual won presidency election in United States. It was revealed that Lincoln was loved and hated in equal measures. President Abraham Lincoln was darling of many in the North and was equally despised in the Southern part (William 137). Abraham Lincoln’s assassinator, Wilkes John Booth, was a native of Maryland, who was born in the year of 1838 and remained in the North during the Civil War in America. As the fight was in its final stages, Booth and several of his accomplices planned to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and ferry him to Richmond, the capital of the Confederate. However, on the 20th of March 1865, the day of the hatched kidnapping, the president never appeared at the spot where the kidnappers were waiting for the president. In the course of only two weeks, Richmond, which is the capital of the confederate, was taken by the Union troops. On April 1865, when the forces of the Confederate were almost collapsing across the South, Booth was obliged to come up with a very desperate plan to save the Confederacy (William 137). He learned that the president was planning to be among the audience at Laura Keenes performance of "Our American Cousin" comedy play. It was to be held at Fords Theatre in Washington, D.C. on 14th of April 1865; Booth was a well-known actor at the time. He, therefore, masterminded the simultaneous assassination of the president, Andrew Johnson (vice president) and William H Seward, who was serving as the Secretary of State. Booth had a strong believe that by killing Lincoln and two of the people who thought might succeed him; he hoped he might overthrow the U.S. government (William 138). Therefore, the main focus of this essay is to discuss in detail the assassination of Lincoln, the United States president who was assassinated on April of 1865. On 14th of April 1865, Booth Wilkes John, who was most renowned actor, fatally killed then United States President Lincoln Abraham. They shot him during a play that was carried out at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The well-orchestrated attack occurred only five days after General Confederate Robert E. Lee decided to retreat so that Civil War could end in America during those days of 1865(Wade 38). President Abraham Lincoln woke up in the morning of 14th of April in mood that suggesting being very pleasant. The morning newspapers during that day made an announcement that Lincoln and Mary would be among the audience in the play. It was known as the American Cousinand was to be conducted at Fords Theater. At 11a.m that morning on the fateful day, Lincoln held a brief cabinet meeting with Grant. After the meeting had been adjourned, Grant gave his regret, he apologised that he could not attend the comedy play during that evening. However, Edwin Stanton, who was serving as the Secretary of War, pleaded with President Abraham Lincoln not to attend the play at night (Web 2nd 2014). During the lunch hour, the president told Mary Lincoln about the Grants failure to attend the play that evening. Mary pressed Lincoln to stick on their plans that had been announced earlier that they would attend a play. However, they requested a Major and his fiancée, to join them during the play that evening. After the dinner in the evening, Mary Lincoln complained that she had a headache, and eventually Mary decided not to go. Abraham Lincoln also complained that he was feeling a bit tired; he reiterated that he needed a place of jokes where he could laugh and therefore intended to go with or without Mary. She relented. Lincoln rushed to the Department of War in a company of his bodyguard, William, but he did not get information he wanted. Lincoln rejected fears of being assassinated((Web 2nd 2014)). The president arrived after the play had already started; he and Mary Lincoln took their seats in the presidential box. The president box door was closed. Police guard known as Parker John, who likes to drink alcohol, left his post leading to the presidents box and went to drinking den to take alcohol.A man, the assassinator,got to the place the president was seated and shot him(web 2nd 2014).A doctor who was only 23 years old by the name Charles Leale was among the audience in the fateful night. He rushed to the box designed for the president instantly upon hearing the shot and the President’s wife, Mary Lincoln’s, also screamed. He found Abraham Lincoln slumped in his presidential box, very paralyzed and had difficulties in breathing. A significant number of armed soldiers transported the President to a nearby house. When the surgeon arrived at the house, he made a remark that Abraham was in a very critical condition, and it was impossible to save him and later he died. The Vice President by then, Mr. Johnson Andrew, cabinet of Abrahams and many of the Lincolns closest allies were on the President bedside. They stayed until the time the President was announced to have succumbed to bullet injuries. The US first lady, Mary Lincoln, lay on the bed in the next room with her eldest son Robert at her side, in a state that is shocking, and they were grieving. After the President had been pronounced dead, his body was laid in a temporary coffin that had been made and covered with a United States flag. The Calvary of army that was heavily armed escorted the body to the official residence of the President, White House, where pathologist and surgeons conducted a thorough autopsy. An army surgeon, Edward Curtis, who attended to Lincoln, described the scene. He recounted that during the removal of the brain, the bullet had clattered into a waiting basin. He wrote that the team stopped staring at the weapon that had killed the president. "The cause of such drastic changes in the worlds history may never be realized" When the autopsy was being undertaken, Lincoln’s wife had her request to the surgeons. He requested for a lock of the Presidents hair be clipped for her. The News of the Lincoln’s death spread like a bush fire and by the end of the day flags were flown at half-mast all over United States. Businesses were shut down, and the citizens who were rejoicing the end of civil war met a rude shock and sad news of the assassins who killed their president (Web 2nd Dec 2014). The body of the Lincoln’s corpse stayed in White House until 18th of April 1865 when it was carried to the Rotunda Capitol to lay. On April 21, President’s corpse was boarded onto a super train that delivered it to Springfield, Illinois, where he had stayed before assuming the responsibilities of America as the President. Hundreds of thousands of citizens flocked along the railroad route and paid their last respect to their slain and fallen leader during the train’s travel via the North. Abraham Lincoln and his son, Willie, who had succumbed earlier to typhoid fever in 1862 in the White House, were interred on 4th of May 1865. It took place at cemetery known as Oak Ridge, near Springfield in Illinois (Current 587). As the whole country was in a state of mourning, the US union armies were extremely hot on the trailing of the Presidents killer. Wilkes Booth John had been recognized by many audiences during the play. After fleeing the Washington D.C, Wilkes Booth John and his accomplice, David Herold, crossed the Anacostia River and made their way to the southern part of Maryland. The two, Wilkes Booth John and David Herold, made a stop at the residence of Mudd Samuel, a doctor who had treated the wounded leg of Booth. However, Mudd’s actions of treating assailant leg earned him a life sentence in prison but it was later commuted. The two killers never made a stop; they sought a refuge from Thomas A. Jones, an agent of the Confederate, before getting a boat to sail across the Potomac to Virginia (Curran 38). Finally, they got a hiding place in Virginia but little did they knew, the two assailants, that troops were desperately chasing them. On 26th of April, the Union soldiers surrounded the farmhouse in Virginia. Booth and Herold were hiding in the house and burnt the house hoping to flush the killers out. Booth was adamant to surrender and stayed inside, but Herold decided to surrender and moved out of the house. As the blaze intensified, Booth was shot in the neck by a sergeant; this was because the assassin had tried to fight back by raising his gun to shoot at the troops. He was later carried out of the building still alive; he lingered for good 3 hours before his hands look steady and uttering his last words: "Useless, useless." 4 of Booth’s assailants who were convicted by court to have participated in the assassination of the President were executed by hanging on 7th of July 1865. They included David Herold, and Mary Surratt whose boarding house was used as a meeting point for the killers (William 138). Conclusion In conclusion, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln is deemed to be a dark moment in American history. The motive of the assassination can be linked to being political. The politics had an upper hand and also the attack on the confederate capital fuelled this assassination plan further. In assumption, it can be assumed that if the president had heeded the calls from the bodyguards to avoid attending the night play, he could have escaped the assassination. He had also escaped a kidnapping from the same assassinator. However, the police guard who left the president box door is deemed to have absconded his duties of protecting the president’s life. Works cited Curran, Thomas F. No Sorrow like our Sorrow; Northern Protestant Ministers and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." Journal of the Church and State 38.3 (1996): 37-38.Print Current, Richard N. " Beware the People Weeping; Public Opinion and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." Journal of Southern History 48.4 (1982): 587-588. Print Wade, Edward A. " The President is Shot! The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." the Journal of American History 32.1 (2004): 38-39.Print William Hanchett. "Weichmann" A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." Journal of American History 63.1) (1976): 137-138. print The Death of President Lincoln, 1865," Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com 1999, revised, 2009. Web 2th Dec 2014. Read More