A Quick and Easy Reference about Abraham Lincoln
The Lincoln Assassination
It was April 14, 1865, just after 10 p.m. when the celebrated actor John Wilkes Booth made his way to President Lincoln's seating box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. He fired one shot from a derringer about a foot away from the president's head. Booth then slashed Major Rathbone across the arm with a dagger, then leaped 11-feet onto the stage surrounded by a packed-house audience. The assassin broke his leg in his landing while shouting out "Sic Siemper Tyrannis."
Questions and Answers on the Crime of the 19th Century
Who were in the presidential box when Lincoln was shot?
Wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancee, Clara Harris.
What was the play being performed at Ford's Theatre?
"Our American Cousin," a popular comedy.
Who else were involved in the assassination?
Booth breaks his leg leaping from the box, hampering his escape
Booth leaped 11 feet to the stage below, some witnesses saying he caught his spur of his left boot on one of the bunting draping the box. He hobbled toward the back stage while shouting to the crowd in dramatic fashion, as an actor might do. "Sic semper tyrannis!" (thus always to tyrants).
Everybody in attendance recognized Booth since he was a famous performer of the stage.
Lincoln was shot through the left ear, and the round lead ball from Booth's 44-caliber derringer lodged behind the president's right eye. Dr. Charles Leale was the first doctor from the audience to reach the paralyzed Lincoln, who was barely breathing.
After inspecting Lincoln's wounds, it was determined that it would be perilous to take him to the White House for care. Instead, a group carried the slain president across the street to the Petersen boarding house.
Lincoln never regained consciousness and died nine hours later, at 7:22 a.m.
Ford's Theatre in 1865
How long did Booth's escape last?
Twelve days. Booth was shot and captured in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia. He died the same day, on April 26, 1865.
Was the Lincoln assassination a conspiracy?
Yes. There were nine conspirators.
Was Booth considered a hero by the South?
Not at all. Most southerners thought the murder would create a vengeful retailiation on the South, thus, exacerbate an already precarious future just following the Civil War.
Booth's 44-caliber derringer
Lincoln with Union officers.
Ford Theatre's Presidential box.
While Booth was killing Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Lewis Powell entered the home of Secretary of State William Seward at Lafayette Square. Posing as a delivery man with medicine for the ailing Seward, Frederick, Seward's son, was beaten severely while trying to fend off the intruder. Powell twice slashed Seward's throat and brutalized another son of Seward, and others as he escaped the house.
Miraculously, Seward was wearing a surgical collar from a carriage accident he'd suffered earlier. The collar protected him from the deadly assassination attempt, and he recuperated from injuries.
Another conspirator, George Atzerodt, was assigned to assassination vice president Andrew Johnson. Atzerodt never went through with the murder, but conspiring evidence, including a loaded gun and knife, were found in his hotel room. He was implicated in the conspiracy along with Mary Surratt, who hosted conspiracy meetings at her boarding house and Samuel Arnold, who admitted to complicity to kidnap Lincoln, the original plan of the conspirators.
David Herold, who aided Powell in the assassination attempt of Secretary Steward, was hung along with fellow conspirators Powell, Surratt and Atzerodt on July 7, 1865, at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington, D.C. Four other conspirators, Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, Samuel Arnold and Edman Spangler received prison sentences.
"I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me..."
Booth’s original plan was NOT to assassinate Lincoln -- but to kidnap him...
According to confessions of a few conspirators, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was complicit in the plans to kidnap Lincoln in March, 1865.
Rebel troops were aligned in northern Virginia at that time, with no logical purpose other than to protect a route for the kidnapping.
The plan was to abduct Lincoln by hijacking his carriage after the president attended a daytime play performance at the Campbell Hospital on March 17, 1865. The kidnapping plot went array when Lincoln cancelled his visit.
For a while, there was a new plot of kidnapping Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre until it was deemed impracticable.
Concurrently, the Confederacy made arrangements to detonate explosives at an entrance to the Executive Mansion. On April 10, 1865, the Confederate explosives expert was captured, thus thwarting that assassination attempt.
Following the nixed kidnapping plan and the failed bombing of the “White House,” Booth had his mind made up to shoot the president after hearing Lincoln’s speech outside the White House on April 11.
About Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of U.S.
Did Andrew Johnson Pardon the Conspirators?
Yes. President Andrew Johnson, on March 1, 1869, took it upon himself to pardon three convicted conspirators: Samuel Mudd, to whom the adage "your name will be Mudd" is attributed, was pardoned based on his heroic doctoring of the penitentiary when a deadly disease struck.
Also given their freedom were Edmund Spangler and Samuel Arnold. Years later, Arnold delineated his guilt in the conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln.
The hanging of the four conspirators July 7, 1865
Was the Lincoln assassination a conspiracy?
Yes. There were nine conspirators.
Abe Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 to Nancy Hanks Lincoln and father Thomas Lincoln in Kentucky. He had an older brother, Thomas, Jr., who died at infancy. His older sister Sarah was a dear sister to him, and helped raise him, being two years older.
When Abe turned 9 years old, his adoring mother Nancy died of milk disease from a cow. Her death devastated him. In later years, Lincoln would say: "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." It is said that he remembered her affection and wonderful nature.
His father remarried a woman named Sarah who had three children: Elizabeth,Matilda, and John. They worked together on the farm in Indiana.
Lincoln loved his stepmother Sarah dearly. Her kindness and supportive nature with Abe is credited to molding his characteristics. He called her "mother" the rest of her life.
When Abe turned 19, his beloved sister Sarah died in childbirth, crushing Lincoln emotionally.
Was there a previous assassination attempt on President Lincoln's life?
John Wilkes Booth
Apparently, yes. Lincoln humorously tells a harrowing story to a close friend that in August of 1864, while riding his horse to The Lincoln Cottage at the Soldiers' Home three miles from the White House -- he has his stovepipe hat shot right off his head.
The late night incident startled the president who took off in a sustained gallop, and joked about being bushwhacked by a scoundrel in the middle of the night. Lincoln surmised that the rifle shot came from 50 yards. Yet he chose to keep it hushed from the public.
In an unbelievable circumstance of historical fate, Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, also was on hand for two other U.S. Presidential assassinations: John Garfield and William McKinley.
Robert was at his father's bedside when he died at the Petersen boarding house.
Sixteen years later, serving as Secretary of War to President James A. Garfield, Todd Lincoln was standing nearby when the president was shot twice by an assassin in a train station.
In September of 1901, as president of the Pullman Company, Todd Lincoln was traveling through Buffalo when he learned President William McKinley had been shot by an assassin.
Lincoln went to McKinley's bedside and comforted the president, who seemingly was recovering from the wounds. A week later, McKinley had died of an infection.
Son Robert Todd Lincoln Nearby for 2 Other President Assassinations
Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln had four children: Edward "Eddie", William "Willie", and Thomas "Tad" -died respectively at 3, 11, and 18 years of age.
Only Robert lived to adulthood. He lived a very successful and productive life, graduating from Harvard College and worked as an officer in the military, a lawyer and a businessman. He died a few days short of his 83rd birthday in 1926.
How many children did Lincoln have?
Was Lincoln the first president to be targeted for an assassination attempt?
No. Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the U.S., had an assassin misfire his gun while attempting to kill him in 1835. Lincoln was the first president assassinated.
How long had the Civil War been over when Lincoln was shot?
The Civil War ended at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865 -- it was Palm Sunday. Lincoln was assassinated five days later, on Good Friday.
Was there no Secret Service when Lincoln was assassinated?
Ironically, Lincoln signed a bill to create a Secret Service the very day he was shot at Ford's Theatre. The duties hadn't been defined yet for the program.
Who was supposed to join the Lincolns at Ford's Theatre?
The plan initially was for Ulysses S. Grant and his wife to join Abe and Mary in the presidential box. Grant, however, begged off in order to visit their children in New Jersey.
Did Lincoln have a premonition of his death?
Yes. A week before he was killed, Lincoln dreamed that the White House was in mourning, and that he saw his own corpse in a casket on display after being assassinated. He told this to his eventual biographer, Ward Hill Lamon, a friend.
Lincoln Shows His Wisdom, Compassion and Sense of Fairness. He was a man of great wit and sagacity. He was an entertaining storyteller, a clever humorist, and a man of great conviction.
Great Quotes and Remarks from Abraham Lincoln
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
“When I do something good, I feel good. When I do something bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
"An old Dutch farmer remarked to a companion once that it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams."
“When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.”
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
“Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?”
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
“if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer."
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
“I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace.”
“I would rather be a little nobody, than to be an evil somebody.”
"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
“Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”
“I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.”
“If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.” - Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Facts and Points of Interest
In Lincoln’s pockets during his assassination were: two pairs of glasses, a chamois for the lenses; a pocket knife; a linen handkerchief embroidered with A.Lincoln in red thread; a Confederate five-dollar bill; a leather wallet containing a pencil; a few news clippings; and a gold watch fob without a watch.
Lincoln obtained a patent for a product used to lift boats over sandbars.
Despite having four sons, Lincoln had no direct descendents.
Having interest in psychic phenomena, Lincoln and Mary hosted Seances in the White House.
Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard. It was allegedly suggested to him by an 11-year-old boy, to improve his facial appearance.
At 6’4”, Lincoln was the tallest president.
Lincoln’s shoe size was the biggest of all presidents at size 14.
Lincoln loved animals and had several pets in his household, including rabbits, horses, goats, turkeys, a mutt named Fido and two stray cats called Dixie and Tabby.
During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, a necessity, he felt, to win the war.
Before the war, Lincoln’s favorite general was General Robert E. Lee.
The 13th Ammendment which banned slavery was passed in 1865 soon after Lincoln’s death.
Lincoln’s funeral train traveled about 1,700 miles over a three-week period on its way to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s body was heavily embalmed allowing an open casket for viewing in 10 cities along the way.
It was later called the Civil War because it was a battle or rebellion pertaining to civilians.
Lincoln became a powerful orator and voice for the newly formed Republican Party, and despite losing five elections in his political career, he continued to forge ahead. In 1860, Lincoln won the election despite losing every southern state by a landslide.
