Source: Jon Meacham. And There Was Light -
Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (2022)
Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (2022)
Since arriving in DC in early-1861, Lincoln had received death threats, and there were actual plans and attempts during the Civil War to kidnap or assassinate him. Opposition press openly advocated for violence against the President. Slavery and secession had put the rebellious South outside the normal boundaries of politics, law, reason, and religion, all of which Lincoln championed. Words have consequences as do actions, and it was in this fevered Southern atmosphere at the end of the Civil War that encouraged John Wilkes Booth to organize and unleash his conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Andrew Johnson.
14 April 1865 - Good Friday as well as the 4th Anniversary of the Surrender of Fort Sumter: Lincoln (eventually) announced that he would attend a play at Ford’s Theater, “Our American Cousin”. The play-loving President was in the mood for a comedy, not so much for a tragedy. Lincoln was plenty busy during the day, among other things meeting with Grant and visiting the War Department. By the late-morning, Ford’s Theater was told that the Lincolns and the Grants were going to attend that evening’s play, but Julia Grant
in no way wanted to be anywhere near Mary Todd Lincoln, since the war was in essence over. Julia told her husband that it was time to visit family instead of attending the play with the Lincolns, and one can almost hear General Ulysses S. Grant saying, “Yes, Dear”.
The First Lady now had to scramble to find two guests to attend the play with her and the President, and she experienced tremendous difficulty in doing so. Mary Todd Lincoln's behavior and attitude as First Lady over four years had turned off almost everybody among the DC political and military elites, so she in desperation for the two guests settled on a personal friend, Emma Harris, who was engaged to Major Henry Rathbone.
14 April 1865 - Good Friday as well as the 4th Anniversary of the Surrender of Fort Sumter: Lincoln (eventually) announced that he would attend a play at Ford’s Theater, “Our American Cousin”. The play-loving President was in the mood for a comedy, not so much for a tragedy. Lincoln was plenty busy during the day, among other things meeting with Grant and visiting the War Department. By the late-morning, Ford’s Theater was told that the Lincolns and the Grants were going to attend that evening’s play, but Julia Grant
in no way wanted to be anywhere near Mary Todd Lincoln, since the war was in essence over. Julia told her husband that it was time to visit family instead of attending the play with the Lincolns, and one can almost hear General Ulysses S. Grant saying, “Yes, Dear”.
The First Lady now had to scramble to find two guests to attend the play with her and the President, and she experienced tremendous difficulty in doing so. Mary Todd Lincoln's behavior and attitude as First Lady over four years had turned off almost everybody among the DC political and military elites, so she in desperation for the two guests settled on a personal friend, Emma Harris, who was engaged to Major Henry Rathbone.
John Wilkes Booth, age 26, was one of the most famous actors on the stage in the nation. Booth’s political and racial obsessions were not extreme in-and-of-themselves, in that they fit nicely with the overall extremist views of the white South at that time, as well as many whites in the North. With Booth’s kidnapping plot (with conspirators) having failed, his thoughts turned to assassination, especially after the Fall of Richmond. It was during the late-morning of 14 April 1865 that Booth, while visiting with Harry Ford (of Ford’s Theater), discovered that Lincoln was going to be in one of the balconies in the theater that evening. Booth’s mind raced, and he worked out very quickly that he could: a) Assassinate Lincoln; b) Be seen doing so in a “Performance”; and c) Get away to MD and then VA to safety where he would be celebrated as a Hero to the South for the rest of his life. Booth viewed himself as a Brutus, which in his mind justified the assassination. In activating his conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, SecState Seward, and VP Johnson, he hoped to create absolute chaos in DC, and of course be a celebrated figure in the South. By 2 pm, Lincoln’s meeting with his Cabinet, with Grant in attendance, ended. The meeting focused on Reconstruction, with Lincoln’s immediate interest on reunion, with his Reconstruction policies to occur afterwards.
14 April 1865, 8:30 pm: The Lincoln entourage entered the theater, with the play’s first act in progress. The actors on the stage paused their performance as “Hail to the Chief” was played, and the standing room only crowd wildly cheered for the President. Once seated four across in the balcony, the play resumed. Booth knew the play very well, and planned on killing Lincoln while the crowd laughed at the funniest line in the play, which would occur in the second scene of the third act. Earlier in the afternoon, Booth had drilled a hole in the nearest of two rear doors entering the balcony. Booth also used a two-by-four to chop out plaster in a wall to use as a wedge with the piece of wood to bar the entry door to the balcony’s rear hallway, so he could not be caught from behind.
14 April 1865, 8:30 pm: The Lincoln entourage entered the theater, with the play’s first act in progress. The actors on the stage paused their performance as “Hail to the Chief” was played, and the standing room only crowd wildly cheered for the President. Once seated four across in the balcony, the play resumed. Booth knew the play very well, and planned on killing Lincoln while the crowd laughed at the funniest line in the play, which would occur in the second scene of the third act. Earlier in the afternoon, Booth had drilled a hole in the nearest of two rear doors entering the balcony. Booth also used a two-by-four to chop out plaster in a wall to use as a wedge with the piece of wood to bar the entry door to the balcony’s rear hallway, so he could not be caught from behind.
After Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a .44 caliber single-shot Derringer pistol, Major Rathbone reacted and tried to subdue the assassin. Booth had a large knife with which slashed Rathbone from the elbow-to-the-shoulder, cutting nerves, veins, and perhaps even an artery. Booth leaped from the balcony, about ten feet, landing awkwardly, breaking his lower left leg.
What did Booth say, and when did he say it, during his “Performance Assassination”? Did Booth, after shooting Lincoln, cry out “The South is Avenged”, or did he shout “Sic Semper Tyrannis”, the state motto of VA (“Thus Always to Tyrants”). It doesn’t matter, in that he was “performing”, and wanted to be heard and seen. Was Booth in the balcony or on the stage when he said something: like what he said, when he said something doesn’t matter. What does matter is that John Wilkes Booth committed the only “Performance Assassination” in U.S. History, denying the nation the leadership and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln during Reconstruction.
While Booth escaped Ford’s Theater, Lewis Powell brutally attacked SecState Seward, who was bedridden due to a recent carriage accident. Powell (age 20) thrust his knife at least 40 times, with most thrusts missing; what saved Seward’s life was his metal neck brace. David Herold (early-20s), who knew DC inside-and-out, was outside the Seward residence to lead Powell out of DC to a rendezvous with Booth in MD, but he ran away hearing the chaos. As a result, Powell, not knowing his way around DC, wasn’t able to escape to MD with Herold. George Atzerodt didn’t do much of anything to assassinate VP Johnson other than to drink. Authorities later discovered in Atzerodt’s hotel room (he stayed in the same hotel as the VP) a pistol and a check made out to him from Booth. John Wilkes Booth, ever the master manipulator of people, talked his way past a Union check point; he should have been turned away or arrested, but he was allowed to enter MD in the dead of night.
What did Booth say, and when did he say it, during his “Performance Assassination”? Did Booth, after shooting Lincoln, cry out “The South is Avenged”, or did he shout “Sic Semper Tyrannis”, the state motto of VA (“Thus Always to Tyrants”). It doesn’t matter, in that he was “performing”, and wanted to be heard and seen. Was Booth in the balcony or on the stage when he said something: like what he said, when he said something doesn’t matter. What does matter is that John Wilkes Booth committed the only “Performance Assassination” in U.S. History, denying the nation the leadership and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln during Reconstruction.
While Booth escaped Ford’s Theater, Lewis Powell brutally attacked SecState Seward, who was bedridden due to a recent carriage accident. Powell (age 20) thrust his knife at least 40 times, with most thrusts missing; what saved Seward’s life was his metal neck brace. David Herold (early-20s), who knew DC inside-and-out, was outside the Seward residence to lead Powell out of DC to a rendezvous with Booth in MD, but he ran away hearing the chaos. As a result, Powell, not knowing his way around DC, wasn’t able to escape to MD with Herold. George Atzerodt didn’t do much of anything to assassinate VP Johnson other than to drink. Authorities later discovered in Atzerodt’s hotel room (he stayed in the same hotel as the VP) a pistol and a check made out to him from Booth. John Wilkes Booth, ever the master manipulator of people, talked his way past a Union check point; he should have been turned away or arrested, but he was allowed to enter MD in the dead of night.
Lincoln was taken to the Petersen Boarding House across the street from Ford’s Theater. The “Who’s Who” of DC surrounded the dying President, including SecWar Edwin Stanton. Lincoln was pronounced dead at 7:22 am on 15 April 1865, at which time Lincoln’s minister said a few words after which Stanton said, “Now he belongs to the ages”. At 10 am on 15 April 1865, VP Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th President at the Kirkwood House, where he was staying. Most in the North sensed that a massive Southern conspiracy was in play, the last act of the Civil War. For most Northerners, Lincoln was a martyr and messiah, while in most of the South, Lincoln’s Assassination was seen as “Divine Retribution”.
The manhunt for Booth (David Herold was with him) ended on 26 April 1865 in a tobacco barn on the Garrett Farm in VA. Over the previous twelve days, most of them trapped and hiding in the MD wilderness, Booth, via newspapers provided to him, discovered that he was not the Hero of the South, but instead a villain. Soon thereafter, Booth started to plan for his next performance, the “Performance Trial”, by writing out among other things his justifications for assassinating Lincoln. After David Herold gave himself up, and as the tobacco barn burned around him, Booth was shot in the neck by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Booth was paralyzed from the neck down, and was in excruciating pain, dying a few hours later when the sun was up. Booth’s last words, as he asked for his hands to be raised so he could see them, were, “Useless . . . useless”.
The manhunt for Booth (David Herold was with him) ended on 26 April 1865 in a tobacco barn on the Garrett Farm in VA. Over the previous twelve days, most of them trapped and hiding in the MD wilderness, Booth, via newspapers provided to him, discovered that he was not the Hero of the South, but instead a villain. Soon thereafter, Booth started to plan for his next performance, the “Performance Trial”, by writing out among other things his justifications for assassinating Lincoln. After David Herold gave himself up, and as the tobacco barn burned around him, Booth was shot in the neck by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Booth was paralyzed from the neck down, and was in excruciating pain, dying a few hours later when the sun was up. Booth’s last words, as he asked for his hands to be raised so he could see them, were, “Useless . . . useless”.
President Andrew Johnson very soon proved to be self-involved, reactionary, racist, and narcissistic. From May to December 1865, when Congress was out of session, Johnson did everything he could as President to take control of Reconstruction. Johnson’s overall goal was to mold Reconstruction so it was to the advantage of white Southerners and at the expense of Black Americans. Due in large part to Johnson having the “South’s Back”, the South became emboldened in defeat, and as the years and decades unfolded, the region remade their social and political structure to as close as possible as it was before the Civil War.
In the late-1860s, the “Lost Cause” took root as a sort of historic religion in the South. The “Lost Cause” was also accepted and embraced in the North, all the way to the brink of World War II (the book and movie “Gone With the Wind” would be one example for proof of the impact of the "Lost Cause"). Reconstruction proved to be the “2nd Civil War”, and in this conflict, the strategies and tactics favored the South; this time, the South had the advantages that counted in order to outlast the federal government, even under military occupation. After the “Compromise of 1877”, there were no more federal troops occupying areas of the South, which allowed the white South to do whatever it wanted in terms of denying basic rights to African-Americans for many decades. “Jim Crow” laws came to dominate the South, and the North used and embraced segregation as well. In 1896 the Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, ruled that “Separate But Equal” was to be the nationwide standard.
In the late-1860s, the “Lost Cause” took root as a sort of historic religion in the South. The “Lost Cause” was also accepted and embraced in the North, all the way to the brink of World War II (the book and movie “Gone With the Wind” would be one example for proof of the impact of the "Lost Cause"). Reconstruction proved to be the “2nd Civil War”, and in this conflict, the strategies and tactics favored the South; this time, the South had the advantages that counted in order to outlast the federal government, even under military occupation. After the “Compromise of 1877”, there were no more federal troops occupying areas of the South, which allowed the white South to do whatever it wanted in terms of denying basic rights to African-Americans for many decades. “Jim Crow” laws came to dominate the South, and the North used and embraced segregation as well. In 1896 the Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, ruled that “Separate But Equal” was to be the nationwide standard.