The Assassination

WHO:

Assassinator: John Wilkes Booth

WHERE:

Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C

During a production of Our American Cousin.

WHEN:                   

Good Friday, April 14, 1865

As the American Civil War was drawing to a close.

WHY:

Five days before the assassination, Robert E. Lee- a commanding general for the Army of Northern Virginia- surrendered to General Ulysses S.Grant. As part of a larger conspiracy

intended to rally the remaining Confederate troops to continue fighting, John Wilkes Booth was assigned to carry out the assassination of President Lincoln.

Booth plotted with Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson as well. By killing the top three in the Presidential line of succession, the desired results were to throw the Union Army into dismay. In the end, it was only President Lincoln's assassination that went according to plan; Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve and fled.

The Curse of the First Lady

Her name was Mary Todd Lincoln.

She appeared to be your typical first lady: she competed with the other wives of the social and political elite, remained a loyal and dotting wife to her husband the President and raised her children to fit in with Washington's society. But behind the veil that separated the Washington Mary Todd from the true Mary Todd, you'll find that she wasn't your average first lady: tragedy would soon strike the Lincoln family that would follow Mary through the rest of her life.                When the Lincoln family entered the White House, they were a happy family of 5. The Lincoln children- Tad, Willie and Robert- grew up in a very loving household with considerably "easy going" parents for the time. Willie was deemed a young Abraham Lincoln at a young age with his kind face and loving manners and was the apple of his mother's eye. It was Willie's early death that got the ball rolling for Mary Todd Lincoln's streak of turmoil.

The Lincoln family was extremely disheartened after young Willie's death and tragedy struck again as the Civil War was drawing to a close.

As Mary Todd and President Lincoln were sitting through a production of Our American Cousin at the Ford's Theatre in D.C, John Wilkes Booth entered their box and shot the President at point blank range. Mary Todd, witness to all, left the theatre a widow, donning a dress sprayed with the blood of her late husband.                                                          Mary was resistant in leaving the White House but eventually found herself settling in Chicago with her son Tad as Robert was making a life for himself as a lawyer. In her efforts of making a new life for herself, Mary found herself again in the midst of turmoil when the Great Chicago Fire hit leaving her and Tad in a city of destruction.

Various scandals later, including her battle with Congress to receive more money, Mary found herself moving abroad to make a new name for herself with Tad. But once again, Mary had to suffer through the death of another child as Tad became severely ill and died with his mother by his bedside.

Many years later with countless more scandals and a failed relationship with her son, Mary Todd was admitted into an insane asylum by her own son Robert.

Mary ended getting out of the asylum and patched things over with her only living son shortly before her death years later. Whether she was truly insane or extremely clever, history will always remember her as one of the more creative First Ladys.

Top 5 Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Number 5.

"Fourscore 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."

-Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

Number 4.

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

-"Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.

Number 3.

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

-Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Number 2.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

-'House-Divided' Speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.

Number 1.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

-Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.