The Assassination of Our American Cousin

On Friday, April 14th. 1865, there was a play known as Our American Cousin going on in Ford's Theater. Presented by the famous actress at the time, Laura Keene, gained great popularity from many people. Including the President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was to attend this show. He was given the best seats, and the closest view. The show was a success, a theater masterpiece. Until the unthinkable had occurred. A man by the name of John Wilks Both had made his way up to the president's suit, where he was watching the play, and shot him clean in the back of the head.

You have probably heard this story before. What you may not know, is that killing the president of the United States was not the original plan. John Wilks Booth was not necessarily a confederate, but he was the leader of a Conspiracy against the President. In the book, "Lincoln’s Last Days," It was said that John Wilks Booth went around asking man and women to join his Conspiracy. Until one day, he asked a man named Lewis Powell to join his cause. This man was one of the leading officers in the Confederacy. So, when John Wilks Booth mentioned a Conspiracy, Lewis jumped right onto it. He sent word to the leader of the Confederate army, Jefferson Davis, who agreed to help John in his attempts to sabotage the president.

John had a few ideas, but the one he went with was to kidnap the president himself and try to persuade him to change his mind about the ban on slavery. He began to prepare for his diabolical plot, by hiring men who knew the roads around the Theater and escape routes from the town.  In preparation for this attack, Jefferson Davis sent John a check worth about fifteen hundred dollars to spend on hiring hands, weapons and horses. John got about seventy-five percent of the way done with his plan, when he ran into a problem. The problem was the key point of this attack, to kidnap the president. He tried multiple ways in his head on how he was going to get the president outside and out of sight, but there was just no way. There were so many eyes on him due to the so called winning of the war, and because the president was already being so bold as to be in such a public place as the theater. John concluded that there was just no way to kidnap the president. He was beginning to feel so defeated that he almost killed a man at a shooting range. It was there, however, that he came to conclusion that no one else would. There was no way to get the president out of that theater without anyone seeing. So why don't we just make a scene that no one would forget? John made the decision that he was going to be Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

"I am the man who will end Abraham Lincoln's life." John continued to say in his head. "This is war time. Killing the enemy is no more illegal then kidnaping him." O'Reilly, Bill, and Dwight Jon Zimmerman. Lincoln's Last Days. Square Fish Publishing, 2014. John Wilks Booth was so set on his new plan, that it replayed over and over in his head. He was going to become so famous and everyone was going to remember him for killing the president.

John Wilks Booth was a very evil man. He failed to do what he intended to do, and gained the fame he had always wanted. There was such an evil in John's heart. It was in control of his thoughts, his actions and his words. He was so bent on killing the president, that he forgot about his own morals and why he started this Conspiracy in the first place. He started it because he believed that there was just confusion in the minds of the Union. He wanted to show everyone that they were wrong, but in a non-violent kind of way. He was so filled with rage, that the evil that came out of him had clouded his morals. He was just going to kidnap the president and attempt to convince him to rethink the ban on slavery. There was going to be no blood shed, or any type of true violent acts of terror to the country. John loved this country, he did not want to harm it. But his longing to be more famous than his father, and his hatred towards Abraham Lincoln, caused him to lose sight of all that and focus on one thing. Abraham Lincoln was to be a symbol of sacrifice, that slavery was not as bad as everyone thought it was.

John Wilks Booth's father, Junius Brutus Booth, was a very famous actor at the time. He had stared just about every theatrical play that was performed at the time. Thinking about how his father's fame compares to his own, made him sad, angry and jealous. There was the main drive now to his act of terror that he was about to do. He was so well known at Ford's Theater, that they allowed him to come in at any entrance he wanted too. That was his plan on getting in. His escape plan however, was a lot more difficult. Considering how, the second he pulled the trigger on his gun, that all the president’s secret service men would stop flirting with the actresses and become alerted to the situation. Believe it or not, John's escape plan did involve him swinging down the curtain and onto the stage. The only thing he did not account for, was that the curtain would tear. So, when he swung down, it tore and he had a rougher landing then he had anticipated.

The act of terror that John Wilks Booth accomplished that day, was the first of many to come. Some say that he was the very first terrorist of our country. Others say he did the right thing and that the president was not all everyone has said he is. What you need to understand in this situation is that both men were fighting for what they believe in. You can do the same, and there are those out there who would encourage you to do so. Just know that if you do choose to fight for what you believe in, and what you believe may get you killed, that you do it knowing you are going to die for what you believe in. Abraham Lincoln died for what he believed in, and for our country. John Wilks Booth died for what he believed in too, only his death was way more severe. When he jumped down from the balcony after shooting president Abraham Lincoln, he flew down the side from a curtain. Which had torn when he started to descend, so when he landed he broke his right leg. While on stage, in agonizing pain, he was not going to let his one chance at fame be wasted. While everyone was just finished screaming from the gunshot, he turns to the crowd and said, “Sic semper tyrannis!" Which means "Thus always to tyrants." He said this because this is what was recorded to have been said by Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was the assassin of the famous Julius Caesar of Rome. John fled to his horse after saying that to the crowd. He was missing for only twelve days after the shooting, until on the twelfth day, Union soldiers had finally caught up to him. Instead of bringing him into to trial, it was said that they shot him right then and there. He was presumed dead at the scene, but the cause of death was later found to be from a gunshot wound. He died at the age of twenty-six years old, and he will forever be remembered. If you really think about it, John Wilks Booth got what he wanted. He wanted to be remembered and be more famous than his father, and he wanted to end Abraham Lincoln's life for the Union. He accomplished what he sought so hard in his heart to do. The only cost, was his life. What is the cost to fight for what you believe in?