Lincoln's assassination attempt. The Lincoln Assassination: A Collection of Mistakes

27.08.2020

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The tragedy took place at Ford's Theater in Washington in 1865. The criminal, a popular actor at that time and the most handsome man in the city (according to the overwhelming majority of women), John Wilkes Booth, freely entered the presidential box and shot the distinguished guest in the back of the head. Lincoln died the next morning. Booth himself, who managed to escape from the theater, was killed a few days later during a chase organized for him.

One gets the impression that the most dangerous position in the world is that of the President of the United States of America. After all, no security service can guarantee that the next head of the White House will not add to the mournful list of his predecessors who went to the forefathers ahead of schedule through the efforts of some descendant of Herostratus. The first in the list of attempts on the life of American presidents is the assassination of Honest Abe - Abraham Lincoln.

The morning of April 14, 1865 began as usual for the owner of the White House. Nothing indicated that this day would be Lincoln's last. Just three years ago, Honest Abe survived another assassination attempt: a hitman's bullet pierced his hat, but did not cause any harm to his health. In general, in America, many did not like this man: by abolishing slavery, Lincoln thereby made many enemies for himself among the white planters, who, by his grace, lost free labor. In addition, after several assassination attempts, the president himself seems to have come to terms with the idea that one of his “well-wishers” will still achieve his goal and send him to the next world. To arguments about ways to strengthen security, America's first man gloomily laughed it off: they say that the only reliable way to save the president is to put him in an iron box; in this case, the security of the head of state, of course, will be ensured, but he will not be able to fulfill his immediate duties. However, it was Lincoln who first had permanent bodyguards. In addition, for some time the president was guarded by detectives from the Chicago detective bureau of Alan Pinkerton, who managed to prevent several assassination attempts on the head of government. Pinkerton, who lived until 1884 (his agency lasted until 1999), was fond of repeating: if his people constantly guarded the life of the 16th President of the United States, he would have died only of extreme old age. But since Lincoln was, in fact, a "military" president, the army was mainly concerned about his safety.

After reviewing the mail, as usual, Lincoln went to the cabinet meeting at 11 o'clock in the morning. Civil War hero General W. S. Grant was also present. After the meeting, the president asked him to stay and asked if the general and his wife could accompany him and Mrs. Lincoln to the Ford Theater. Tom Taylor's comedy "Our American Cousin" was just on there, and all of Washington was delighted with the performance of the famous actress Laura Keene. Grant lamented that he would love to keep a high-ranking couple company, but his sons would be waiting for him in New Jersey that evening. The gallant general had no idea that this refusal to visit the temple of art would save his life. Meanwhile, Lincoln Kennedy's personal secretary warned his boss of the dangers of this trip and insisted on canceling a planned theater visit that the entire city knew about. Unfortunately, Honest Abe shrugged off the obsessive adviser.

The actors of the Ford Theater knew that on April 14 the president himself was going to visit the performance. This news was especially aroused by one of the leading artists, John Booth. Handsome, who belonged to the number of ardent southern extremists, fiercely hated Lincoln. He believed that the president's policy, in fact, led the country to the Civil War. So the actor gladly joined the group of conspirators who set as their goal the elimination of the objectionable head of state. Many options were offered. Even the possibility of kidnapping Lincoln and using him as a hostage in exchange for arrested Confederate Southerners was considered. However, the final verdict of the organizers of the assassination was as follows: Lincoln was to be publicly assassinated (this version of the massacre seemed the most spectacular and dramatic), and after that, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward would be successively eliminated.

So, on April 14, 1865, according to the killers, there were ideal conditions for the implementation of the first part of the plan for "adjusting" state policy. At Mary Sarrott's Washington boarding house, Booth hastily met with the other conspirators—George Atzeroth, Sam Arnold, David Harold, and Lewis Payne. The group discussed the details of the plan over a bottle of whisky. It is strange, but alcoholic vapors, it turns out, are capable of not only pushing on various kinds of "feats", but also awakening common sense that has fallen into a coma. In any case, after drinking heavily and plucking up courage, one of the conspirators - Sam Arnold - announced that he was leaving the case and was not going to take part in the assassination attempt.

Four friends, having expressed everything they thought about this to the "apostate", undertook to distribute roles among themselves. As a result, Payne and Harold had to deal with the Secretary of State, Azeroth had to take on the assassination of the Vice President (instead of taking decisive action at the indicated time, the conspirator got drunk half to death in the nearest tavern), and Bout got the "honor" of destroying the president.

Lincoln nevertheless found a company for himself and his wife to visit the theater. About nine o'clock he appeared in his box, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Miss Clara Harry. The comedy was already in full swing, but about 2,000 spectators present in the hall hurried to rise, welcoming the head of state, and the orchestra began to play a march. The actors waited until everyone was seated again, and resumed the performance.

At 21.30, Booth, dressed in all black and carefully made up, drove up to the theater building, armed with two Colts, a pistol and two knives. He showed the sentry at the door some kind of pass, which he could not even read in the semi-darkness. The artist said that he had to convey an important message to the president, and was let upstairs. For some time he hid at the entrance to the box, waiting for the right moment. And he soon introduced himself. One of Honest Abe's guards, John Parker, decided that nothing bad would happen in the time it would take him to look into the nearest bar. As soon as he was out of sight, Booth burst into the box and pulled the trigger of his pistol, shouting the slogan of the southern states in the Civil War: "Death to tyrants!" The bullet pierced the president's head and got stuck in the right eye area. Major Rathbone tried to stop the killer, but the artist, having wounded the officer with a knife, managed to jump from the box onto the stage. And then Bout was unlucky: he got entangled in the curtain, fell on the stage, breaking his leg just above the knee. Nevertheless, the criminal managed to take advantage of the general turmoil, get out of the theater and ride away on horseback in an unknown direction. At the same time, Payne stabbed (fortunately not fatally) the Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln, with the utmost care, was seated in a rocking chair and transferred to one of the nearby houses, where a doctor was urgently brought. But the Aesculapius only shrugged helplessly. Only a miracle could help the president, but it never happened. On the morning of April 15, the sad list of US presidents who died in office was opened.

At the agreed place, Booth met with Harold, after which the accomplices went to the state of Maryland, where they expected to receive asylum from like-minded southerners. Since the broken leg worried the actor more and more, he had to turn to a doctor he knew. He put a splint on the injured limb, and the fugitives set off again. But 11 days after the tragedy in the theater, the killer and his accomplice were tracked down and surrounded on a tobacco farm in Virginia. Negotiations with the criminals dragged on, because Booth did not burn with desire to voluntarily surrender into the hands of the military, who besieged the building. Finally, the patience of the "beaters" snapped - the farm was set on fire, after which Harold decided that it was better to be cowardly, but alive, than a hero, but freshly roasted. But, who perfectly imagined what awaited him in the event of an arrest, he preferred to shoot himself. True, there is an assumption that one of the pursuers shot the killer, thereby violating the order of Secretary of War Stanton: "Take the killer of the president alive!" For example, Lieutenant Colonel Conger, one of the secret police officers who led the operation to capture Bout, had such an opportunity. The fact that the artist was not a crazy lone fanatic, as is commonly believed, is evidenced not only by a check found in the pocket of the murdered man for a very large amount, signed by the head of the Confederation. The fact that very influential people were hiding behind Bout's back makes us think about a few more facts. So, the killer of the president, who received a bullet, lived for another three and a half hours, and all this time he was fully conscious. The doctor who examined the mortally wounded warned the military that his patient's hours were numbered, so in order to obtain information about the assassination attempt, it is worth hurrying to interrogate. However, despite this, the actor was never interrogated. As for Booth's diary, his Minister of War for some reason considered it necessary to hide it from the court. When authorities formally requested this document from Stanton, 18 pages were missing. What did the military man want to hide from the investigation? And what did the strange phrase, drawn by Booth’s hand, mean: “I am almost inclined to return to Washington and. justify what I think I can do.” It seems that the killer could justify himself only in one case - by revealing the names of his high-ranking accomplices, who remained in the shadows. And there were, apparently, a lot of them. The notes mention 11 members of Congress, 12 army officers, three navy officers and 24 civilians: the governor, journalists, big bankers, wealthy industrialists. In addition, rumors have long circulated in America that Bout was not killed, that the government played this performance for the sole purpose of closing the case of the assassination of the president. The executor of the “order” himself allegedly lived for another 38 years, however, at the end of his life he drank himself and killed himself. Nevertheless, the answer to the question of whether Bout was actually killed, oddly enough, is not to this day.

The participants in the conspiracy were quickly found and put behind bars. The decision of their future fate was to be dealt with by a military tribunal. Why not to a civil court, an inquisitive reader will ask. Because, as James Speed, who was Attorney General at the time, said, “in times of war, the laws and customs of war become part of the general laws of the land.” So, at a high-profile trial, the conspirators were found guilty of plotting the assassination of the US President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State. Three of the most active individuals were sentenced to death. Sam Arnold, who did not take part in the assassination attempt, but did not warn Lincoln's guards about their preparation, was waiting for life hard labor. The same fate befell the surgeon Samuel Mudd, who "collected" the killer's leg. As for the stagehand Edward Spangler, through whose fault Booth managed to get out of the theater building, he received six years in prison.

But the ending of the story of the murder of Honest Abe has not been completed to this day. I wonder if this case will be reviewed in the future? Will new facts and names come up that once eluded the investigation or were diligently not noticed by officials?

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Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated 150 Years Ago

Exactly 150 years ago, in April 1865, the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. For decades, it was believed that there was nothing obscure in this tragedy: the killer was named, found and destroyed. All other participants in the conspiracy were put on trial and roughly punished. Only now there was talk very soon that everything was not as simple as it seemed, that there were too many "oddities" and "inconsistencies" in this matter. And the more time passed, the more questions arose ...

In March 2015, the Levada Center conducted a survey related to the murder of Boris Nemtsov, and it showed that 44% of those surveyed did not believe that those who ordered the murder would be found. And 48% of Russians are generally skeptical about the likelihood of establishing the truth about the motives and customers of the murder. Of these, 27% argue that not a single political murder has been solved, and 21% believe that, as always, they will find some “switchmen”, while the real perpetrators will evade responsibility.

You might think that this is typical only for the XXI century and only for our country. But, for example, the French still do not know exactly why their main pride, Napoleon Bonaparte, died on St. Helena. And the Americans can hardly say with complete certainty what happened 150 years ago with their national hero Abraham Lincoln.

DRAMA AT THE FORD THEATER

And what happened (according to the official version) is the following. On Friday, April 14, 1865, President Lincoln, after completing his usual day at the White House, invited General Grant and his wife to accompany him and Mrs. Lincoln to the theater. The Lincolns were eager to see the comedy My American Cousin, which was playing that evening at the Ford Theatre, the oldest theater in downtown Washington. Grant refused, citing some important business, while he did not even suspect that this refusal would save his life.

Lincoln always said that "a ballot is stronger than a bullet." But he was wrong, for that evening he was assassinated and mortally wounded in a theater box by Southerner actor John Wilkes Booth.

The official explanation for the assassination is that Booth hated Lincoln for his policies, which, in the opinion of this ardent southern extremist, led to the Civil War, which ended with the victory of the northerners. Deciding to kill the president, Booth put together a special group that included David Herold, John Surratt, Lewis Powell, Sam Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, Edmund Spangler, George Etzerodt and several others.

After conferring, the conspirators came to the conclusion that the most spectacular would be the public assassination of the president, combined with the elimination of Vice President Andrew Johnson, as well as Secretary of State William Seward. Lincoln's forthcoming visit to the theater gave Booth an ideal opportunity to fulfill his plan. Lewis Powell and David Herold at this time were supposed to kill Seward, who had recently suffered a carriage accident and was lying in bed in his villa with a broken lower jaw and a broken arm. And George Etzerodt was supposed to "take on" the vice president.

The presidential couple, accompanied by friends - Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris - arrived at the theater after 20.00. The performance had already begun, but the actors were forced to stop the game, as the audience in the hall stood up and the orchestra played a welcoming anthem. And at 21.30 Booth, dressed in all black, rode up to the theater on horseback. He had a knife with him, two Colts in his pockets, and a cocked revolver in his hand. And before that, he visited the Ford Theater and carefully examined the government box. He dug a hole in the door (the lock did not work in it) and bent a wooden plank in order to slide it into the handle of the second door leading to the corridor.

Surprisingly, the presidential guard John Parker "suddenly" left his post at the entrance to the box and went to a nearby bar. We immediately put the word "suddenly" in quotation marks, as it looks absolutely incredible, as if it were not about the protection of the president of the country. Taking advantage of this, Booth entered the box and shot Lincoln in the head. It is believed that he knew the play well, and therefore waited for the funniest scene of the comedy, when loud laughter was usually heard in the auditorium, and he drowned out the sound of the shot.

Henry Rathbone jumped up, trying to apprehend the killer. But he pulled out a knife and, wounding the major, jumped from the box onto the stage. At the same time, he got tangled in the curtain and broke his leg above the knee. But even this did not prevent Booth from getting out of the theater without hindrance.

The seriously wounded president (a bullet entered his head behind his left ear, pierced his brain and got stuck in the region of his right eye) was carefully transferred to one of the nearby houses. But the doctor who arrived could not do anything. The next morning, at 7:22, Abraham Lincoln died.

Meanwhile, Lewis Powell snuck into the home of Secretary of State Seward and stabbed him, but the wound was not fatal. But George Etzerodt, who was supposed to kill the vice president, drank too much "for courage", and then decided not to go anywhere at all.

THE MURDER OF THE PRESIDENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The assassination of the president caused panic in the American capital. Vice President Andrew Johnson (the second person in the state after the president) has removed himself from the leadership of the authorities. Next in rank, Secretary of State William Seward lay wounded. And in fact, the head of the executive branch in these hours and days turned out to be Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Nevertheless, many of the conspirators had already been arrested by April 18, including Mary Surratt (John Surratt's mother), Michael O'Laughlin, Sam Arnold, Lewis Powell, and George Etzerodt.

What about Booth? A few miles from the theater, he met with Herold, and accomplices went to Maryland, hoping to find refuge there with their southern confederates. A familiar doctor bandaged Bout's broken leg, and the criminals continued on their way.

On April 26, 1865, Colonel Lafayette Baker and his men caught up with the fugitives at a tobacco farm in Virginia. The soldiers of Lieutenant Edward Dougherty surrounded the barn where the conspirators were seated, and after lengthy and fruitless negotiations for voluntary surrender, set fire to it. Herold was forced to capitulate, and Booth tried to get out of the fire and smoke and at that moment was mortally wounded in the neck by Sergeant Boston Corbett.

And here are Booth's last words: "Tell my mother that I died fighting for my country."

THE FIRST "Oddities"

As is usually the case, shortly after the assassination of Lincoln, all kinds of versions began to appear regarding the motives and secret reasons for this crime. In fact, too many accidents and inconsistencies were noticed in the official version. Of course, the easiest way was to admit that the crime was committed by a group of fanatics who acted at their own peril and risk and on their own initiative. But…

First of all, a strange impression is made by the fact that Bout managed to calmly enter the government box and fire the fatal shot. And then it turned out that the guard John Parker, who left his post, had a bad reputation and he was repeatedly punished for disobedience and drunkenness in the line of duty. And then “suddenly” it turned out that on April 14, going to the theater in the evening, the president asked Secretary of War Stanton to appoint one of his adjutants, Major Eckart, a very reliable and decisive person, as his bodyguard. But Stanton turned down this request: supposedly Eckart was urgently needed elsewhere that evening. Stanton lied: that evening, Eckart was completely free from service, but instead of him, the drunkard Parker was placed in front of the box door.

The second strange moment: how did Booth manage to leave the city with a broken leg?

According to the first orders given by the same Stanton, all roads leading out of the city were to be blocked. Stations were under police control, the Potomac River was patrolled by warships, six roads coming from Washington were blocked by the military. But, surprisingly, Stanton left two loopholes to the fugitives. Both led to Maryland. Moreover, one road there went along a long wooden bridge. This bridge was always guarded, and at nine in the evening it was blocked. At 10.45 pm, the killer of the president drove onto the bridge. Sergeant Cobb stopped him and inquired about his name and the purpose of his trip. Booth gave his real name and said he wanted to get home. And the sergeant suddenly ordered to let him through. By the way, David Herold was missed in the same way.

The third strange moment: the body of Bout, who was shot during the arrest, was taken to Washington and presented to several people who knew him. Among them was a doctor who had once removed a tumor on Booth's neck. The trace of the operation served as additional evidence. The doctor seemed to recognize Booth, but expressed extreme surprise at the strong cadaveric changes that had occurred in such a short time. Plus, for some reason, the corpse was not presented to Booth's older brother, Edwin. Even then, rumors spread that the one killed during the arrest was not Bout at all and that the substitution was made in order to receive the promised reward and get the government out of an uncomfortable situation, which could not catch the real killer of the president.

And there is also a fourth "strangeness", and the fifth, and the sixth... The volume of the newspaper article does not allow talking about this in detail.

MAIN MOTIVATIONS FOR MURDER

And the motive for the assassination of Lincoln also does not look quite logical. It is generally accepted that Booth decided to take revenge on Lincoln for defeating the southerners. Yes, the war has come to an end, and the North has won. However, the two parts of the country still hated each other, and many northerners dreamed of how they would now deal with the recalcitrant southerners. But it was President Lincoln, who believed that hatred needed to be extinguished, who begged his subordinates not to treat the southern states as conquerors.

bathroom country. He said: “At the end of the war, no persecution, no bloody deeds are needed!”

And it was on April 14, 1865, at a cabinet meeting, that he spoke about reconciliation, and it turns out that on the same day he was shot by a "fanatical southerner." That is, he killed a man who, better than anyone else, could defend and defend the rights of the South!

At the same time, not all people around Lincoln shared his position. For example, the same Minister of War, Edwin Stanton, believed that it was necessary to occupy the South and pursue a tough policy of retaliation there.

By the way, there is a political construction here and it is more complicated.

Some argue that Bout was allegedly a Northern counterintelligence agent in general. On what basis? The logic of reasoning is as follows. In the archives of the United States, a letter was found from the commander of the army, General Grant, to President Lincoln, in which there were these words: “I can no longer continue this insane destruction of people and materiel.<…>Many times I have seen in the eyes of the brave souls from the south the determination to stand to the end. Are all these countless sacrifices worth it in order to force the southerners to return to the Union against their will?

Apparently, Grant's reports made an impression on Lincoln, and in February 1865 he held a secret meeting, at which it was decided to appeal to the President of the Confederate States of the Southern States, Jefferson Finis Davis, with the official recognition of their independence. But in April, the troops of the southerners under the command of General Robert Edward Lee capitulated, but this allegedly did not change Lincoln's mind. And before the federal government loomed the real prospect of a new war with the southerners, which could drag on for many years.

The decision of the secret meeting was no secret to Vice President Andrew Johnson. He also knew that very soon the document recognizing the sovereignty of the thirteen southern states would go to the president for signature. Johnson understood that this would entail the collapse of the United States into two states hostile to each other. And then all the victims of the many years of bloody Civil War, which they seem to have just won, will be in vain. It was impossible to allow this, and “Agent Booth” got the right to shoot ...

"CONVERTER" EDWIN STANTON

Thus, a real conspiracy against Lincoln began to operate in Washington, and Edwin Stanton became its driving force, who, after the assassination attempt on the president, became the de facto ruler of the country. He immediately arrived at the scene of the crime, and then served as the chief of police and supreme judge, giving orders to search for the conspirators.

It was Stanton who announced that anyone who helped the escaped Booth and Herold would face the death penalty. It was he who appointed a reward of $100,000 for the head of the first, and $25,000 for the second.

And here's something else that's interesting. The fugitives were found 125 kilometers south of Washington. When Booth and Herold were surrounded in the barn, the order was given to make sure they were taken alive. Nevertheless, the main participant in the conspiracy was killed at the very moment when he was clearly about to surrender. And then it turned out that a diary was found with him, and it was handed over to the War Ministry. Surprisingly, during the trial of the conspirators, Booth's diary did not appear at all, although he undoubtedly was the most important piece of evidence. They didn't even mention it!

A few years later, Brigadier General Lafayette Baker claimed that he had given Booth's diary to his boss, Stanton, and when he got it back, some pages were missing. Stanton then indignantly replied that these pages were not already there when Baker handed him the diary. But, surprisingly, 18 pages were torn out in total - and all from that part of the diary, which described the events of the days preceding the assassination attempt on Lincoln.

REMOVAL AND SELF-REMOVAL OF WITNESSES

The surviving participants in the conspiracy were put on trial, which recognized them as accomplices in the murder and sentenced to death. Four people were executed: David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Etzerodt and Mary Surratt (they were hanged on July 7). Note that Mary Surratt became the first woman to be executed by a federal court.

Sam Arnold, though not involved in the assassination attempt, was sentenced to life hard labor, as was Michael O'Laughlin and the doctor who treated Booth's broken leg. Edmund Spangler received six years for assisting the killer in the implementation of his plan. By the way, O'Laughlin died in prison.

Only John Surratt managed to escape to Canada, and some historians believe that "it cannot be doubted in the slightest that Stanton deliberately let him get away." Surprisingly, no one was looking for him abroad, and then he was acquitted. Eight jurors voted for his innocence and four for guilt. Plus, the statute of limitations passed and he was released on $25,000 bail.

And then something incredible began to happen. For example, Sergeant Boston Corbett, who for some reason shot Booth, did not bear any responsibility. By the way, when asked why he violated the order and fired, Corbett replied: "Providence directed me." And then he began to say that he acted in self-defense: "Both would have killed me if I had not fired the first shot, so I think I did the right thing." Be that as it may, in 1887 he was hired by the Kansas State Legislature, where he set off a shooting one day, and he was placed in a mental hospital.

Major Henry Rathbone, unable to stop the killer in the theater, then married Clara Harris, who was also present in the box. After that they moved to Germany. And in 1883, Rathbon, after an unsuccessful attempt to kill his children, beat his wife to death, and then tried to commit suicide. He also spent the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum.

General Lafayette Baker, who told about the existence of Booth's diary, was shot several times and tried to kidnap. On July 3, 1868, he died suddenly at the age of only 41, and was buried quickly and in a closed coffin. And after the exhumation, it turned out that he was poisoned with arsenic.

Policeman John Parker was fired in 1868 and disappeared somewhere.

As for Edwin Stanton, he died on December 24, 1869 of an unknown cause. He was only 55 years old, and some historians believe that the former minister committed suicide. Isn't it true that there are too many tragedies that happened to people who knew more about Lincoln's assassination than they should?

Of course, no one can now prove that Lincoln's assassination was conceived by Edwin Stanton, the president's closest associate during the Civil War. Any of the above "oddities" may well be interpreted as a coincidence, but all together they produce a very mysterious impression. And this once again confirms the fact that the real background and circumstances of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln remain uninvestigated.

By the way, one British historian ironically called the whole story a "country-style tragedy", alluding to the low professionalism and provincialism of the American intelligence services of that time. However, perhaps it is precisely behind this "provinciality" that the desire to hide the truth about the Lincoln assassination lies. So it is not at all excluded that John Wilkes Booth and the dignitaries behind him actually fought for a just cause and saved their homeland from the disintegration prepared for it.

The man who kept the United States intact and issued the Emancipation Proclamation was born in 1809. Abraham Lincoln was born into a modest environment - a one-room log cabin with dirty floors in Hardin County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, could not read and could barely write his own name. He was a stern man whom young Abraham never liked. Born into a poor family, his father became a farmer and carpenter who moved his wife and children from rural Kentucky to suburban Indiana when young Lincoln was seven years old. Neither he nor his wife could imagine what heights their son would reach, and what impact he would have on the history of the United States and the whole world.

Briefly about the activities of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was a successful lawyer and served in the US House of Representatives from 1847 to 1949. In 1956, Abraham became a Republican. Two years later, he ran for senator, but lost. Nevertheless, in the sixtieth year, Lincoln became the Republican presidential candidate. He won the presidential election in November of that year. A few months after the election, some southern states seceded from the United States. The civil war began soon after.

The Unionists were defeated at Bull Run in July 1961. A year later, Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves were freed in every state, including those that decided to secede from the United States. The war continued, but in 1963 the United States began to win after their success at Gettysburg in July. In November, Abraham delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. He was re-elected president in 1964, and the Civil War ended a year later. However, Lincoln did not live to see this.

How did Lincoln die?

Abraham Lincoln died in the morning from a bullet wound inflicted the night before by an actor and Confederate sympathizer. The president's death comes just six days after Confederate General Robert Edward Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War.

Who is the killer?

Actor John Wilkes Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, originally planned to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1965, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president did not appear at the place where Booth and six other conspirators were waiting for him. In April, with the Confederate armies close to collapse in the south, Booth devised a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.

Upon learning that on April 14, Lincoln was to attend Laura Keane's famous performance of Our American Cousin at the Ford Theatre, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. By assassinating the president and his two possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the US government into a paralyzing mess.

Following the assassination, John, pursued by troops and Secret Service forces, was finally cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died of a self-inflicted bullet wound when the barn was burned to the ground. Of the eight other individuals ultimately accused of conspiracy, four were hanged and four imprisoned.

Conclusion

Abraham Lincoln died a tragic death, sacrificing his life for the freedom of millions of people. To this day, he is considered the greatest president in the history of the United States and a civil rights activist for his people.

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Lincoln assassination

The Civil War ended with the surrender of the Confederate States of America on April 9, 1865. The country was to carry out the Reconstruction of the South and begin the process of integrating blacks into American society. Five days after the end of the war, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at a performance of My American Cousin (at the Ford Theatre), Southerner actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head. The next morning, without regaining consciousness, Abraham Lincoln died. Millions of Americans, white and black, came to pay their last respects to their president during the two-and-a-half-week funeral train journey from Washington to Springfield. The train was carrying two coffins: a large coffin with the body of Abraham Lincoln and a small one with the body of his son William, who had died three years earlier, during Lincoln's presidential term. Abraham and William Lincoln were buried in Springfield at Oak Ridge Cemetery. The tragic death of Lincoln contributed to the creation around his name of the halo of a martyr who gave his life for the reunification of the country and the liberation of black slaves.

Clara Harris

Future wife of Henry Rathbone, daughter of a prominent US senator.

Henry Rathbone

Army Major.

John Wilkes Booth

American actor, assassin of President Lincoln.

On April 14, 1865, during a performance at the Ford Theater in Washington, President Lincoln was mortally wounded by a pistol shot. Booth was not busy in the performance that was on that day, and in general had previously played at the Ford Theater only twice, but he often visited his actor friends there and knew both the building and the theater repertoire well. During the funniest scene of the comedy My American Cousin, he entered the president's box and shot him after one of the lines, so that the sound of the shot would be drowned out by an explosion of laughter. It is believed that Booth exclaimed at the same time: “Such is the fate of tyrants” (Latin “Sic semper tyrannis!” - the motto of Virginia, which in turn repeats the words that, at the time of the death of Julius Caesar, another famous assassin of the head of state allegedly uttered with consonance with John Wilkes Booth by the name of Mark Junius Brutus).

Abraham Lincoln

American statesman, 16th President of the United States and the first of the Republican Party, liberator of American slaves, national hero of the American people. Included in the list of 100 most studied personalities in history.

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln

Wife of the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln, First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot dead at a play at Ford's Theatre. The wife, who was next to her husband during the performance, was never able to recover from the tragedy and soon completely lost her mind. In 1875, her son Robert placed her in a psychiatric clinic. Mary Lincoln spent the rest of her life in France. She died in 1882 at the age of 63.

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. His father was Thomas Lincoln, a respectable farmer, and his mother was Nancy Hanks, who moved to the state from West Virginia. Alas, young Abraham was not destined to grow up in a wealthy family: in 1816, his father lost most of his property during legal feuds, which was caused by a fatal legal error in the farmer's property documents.

The bankrupt family moved to Indiana, hoping to try their luck in the development of free new lands. Soon Nancy Hanks died, and her older sister Sarah took over a number of her responsibilities in caring for Lincoln Jr. In 1819, Thomas Lincoln, recovering from his loss, married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow who at that time had three children from her first marriage. The future president had a very warm relationship with Sarah Bush, and gradually she became his second mother.

Young Abraham had to take on any part-time job to help his family make ends meet. The exception was fishing and hunting: young Lincoln never undertook such work, as they did not correspond to his moral principles.

Abraham was the first in his family to learn to count and write, and also to love reading very much. At the same time, it is interesting that in all his young years the young man attended school, in total, no more than a year. He was forced to work to help his relatives, but his tireless thirst for knowledge helped him become a literate person.

When Abraham Lincoln turned 21, his large family decided to move. At the same time, a stately, intelligent young man, whose height was 193 cm, and the level of erudition was not inferior to the knowledge of any peer who had completed full schooling, decided to start an independent life. Until then, he had worked diligently for the benefit of the family and gave all his income to his parents, but such activities did not suit him in the context of his life as a whole.

It is worth noting that the success story of Abraham Lincoln is not only a story of inspiring victories, but also resounding slaps from fate, which the politician has always been able to withstand with true dignity. So, in 1832, he tried to be elected to the Legislative Assembly of Illinois, but failed. Then Lincoln began to study the sciences even more seriously than before (he was especially interested in law).

In parallel with this, a young man in a company with his friend tried to make money in a trading shop, but the business of young entrepreneurs went from bad to worse. Abraham, forced to count every penny, was saved only by reading a lot and constantly dreaming. Around the same time, Lincoln formed his negative attitude towards slavery.

Subsequently, young Abraham managed to get a postmaster's position in the town of New Salem, and after a while he took the post of land surveyor. While living in New Salem, Lincoln received one of his most widely known nicknames: "Honest Abe".

With money, the politician was still tight, so he often had to borrow from his friends. But he always repaid his debts on time to the last penny, for which he received such a nickname.

The beginning of a political career

In 1835, Abraham Lincoln tried again to run for the Illinois Legislature, and this time he was successful. In 1836, the politician successfully passed the exams for the official title of lawyer, having studied all areas of law on his own. Subsequently, he worked for a long time in the legal field, including taking on difficult cases and refusing to receive payment from poor citizens who needed his help. Abraham always emphasized democratic values in his speeches.

In 1846 Honest Abe entered the House of Representatives of Congress. As in elections to the Illinois Legislature, he was elected from the Whig party. Lincoln condemned the aggressive actions of the United States in the American-Mexican War, supported the desire of women to get the right to vote, and spoke in favor of the gradual deliverance of the country from the slave system.

After some time, Abraham had to move away from politics for a while, since his negative attitude towards the US-Mexican war, which was then very popular among the masses, became the reason for the rejection of the politician by his home state. Not throwing ashes on his head because of this failure, Lincoln began to devote a lot of time to the practice of law.

In 1854, the Republican Party of the United States was created, which advocated the abolition of slavery, and in 1856 the politician became part of a new political force. It is worth noting that at that time, many former followers of the Whig party joined the Republican Party.

A few years later, he, along with the representative of the Democratic Party Stephen Douglas, ran for the US Senate. During the debate, Lincoln once again expressed his negative attitude towards slavery, which allowed him to create a good reputation, although he lost the election.

President of the U.S.A

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate. He was known for his industriousness, high moral principles, and had the fame of "a man of the people." Interesting facts about politics were read with interest from the pages of newspapers, and his photos were invariably associated with honesty and valor. As a result, the politician won the election, gaining more than 80% of the votes.

As President

However, the newly elected president also had many opponents. His policy, which ruled out the possibility of the spread of slavery, was the reason for the announcement of several states to secede from the United States. The President's statements that the abolition of slavery in those states where it already functions is not planned in the near future, could not resolve the irreconcilable contradictions between the supporters of the slave system and its opponents.

American Civil War

The war between 15 slave states and 20 states where the institution of slavery did not exist began in 1861 and lasted until 1865, becoming a serious test for the newly elected president. In this war, an order of magnitude more American citizens met their untimely death than in any other armed clash in which the United States participated.

The war included a lot of small and large battles and ended with the surrender of the Confederation, which united the states that advocated the legality of the slave system. The country had to go through the difficult process of integrating the liberated black population into American society.

During the war, the president's primary interest was democracy. He made every effort to ensure that even in the conditions of the Civil War the two-party system successfully functioned in the country, elections were organized, freedom of speech and other civil liberties of the US residents were preserved.

Second term and murder

Abraham Lincoln made many enemies during the war years. However, the president benefited from the abolition of the transfer of arrested citizens to court, thanks to which all deserters, as well as the most zealous admirers of the slave system, could be immediately imprisoned.

The people also liked the Homestead act, according to which the settler, who began to cultivate the land on a certain plot and erect buildings on it, became its full owner.

All this allowed Lincoln to be re-elected for a second term, but, alas, he did not have to govern his native country for long. On April 14, 1865, five days after the official end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in the Ford's Theater by Southern actor John Wilkes Booth. It is noteworthy that many coincidences were subsequently discovered between the circumstances of Lincoln's death and how he was assassinated about a century later.

To date, Lincoln is considered one of the most worthy US presidents, who prevented the collapse of the nation and made a lot of efforts to free African Americans. A statue of the President has been erected in Washington as a sign of gratitude to the entire American people. Quotes from the 16th President of the United States have become part of the popular wisdom of Americans.

Personal life

Honest Abe most likely suffered from such a disease as Marfan's syndrome. In addition, depression was a frequent companion of Abraham: they say that in his youth the young man even tried to commit suicide several times.

In 1840, the future president met Mary Todd, and in 1842 the couple married. The wife always supported her husband in all his endeavors, and soon after his death she lost her mind.

Four sons were born in the family, but, alas, many children of the Lincoln couple died in infancy or young age. The only child of Mary and Abraham who survived adolescence and died in old age is the eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln.