Chapter 11

The Day Lincoln Was Shot

Summary
      On April 14th, 1865, President Lincoln was optimistic: the Civil War was finally coming to an end, and he was winning. There would be peace to come. There had been many obstacles and criticisms during his presidency, but he had persevered through it all. He was very worried about America after the end of the war, though. Reconstruction would be difficult. Lincoln needed something to take his mind off of it, so he decided to attend a play with his wife Mary. For some reason, he declined his normal bodyguard and allowed a much less competent man to accompany him, and said goodbye instead of his usual goodnight.
      During the show, he was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth, part of a group of three assassins aiming to destroy the Union government in hopes that the Confederates would rise up and take control. A man named Powell stabbed Seward, the secretary of state, but he managed to survive, and the third man, named Atzerodt, got cold feet and the vice-president Johnson was fine as well. The doctors tried everything, but his wound was fatal, and he died nine hours later, at 7:22 a.m. During this trying time, while a war was still going on, and chaos could have erupted, Secretary of War Stanton "became the government," and kept everything under control (182). Andrew Johnson became the next President, guerilla warfare was avoided, the assassins were caught, and "a divided nation became one," despite suffering a huge loss of a great leader who acted great even during the difficult times (185).

Reflection
      I was completely shocked by the fact that Lincoln seemed to know and accept that he was going to be assassinated, as shown by his actions and words that night. If he was so hopeful and optimistic for the future, why would he be so content to let someone take his life? I wonder why he thought it was so "impossible to prevent" (178).
      Why wouldn't he have at least told someone or asked for more protection? Did he want to die? It doesn't seem like such a great man who "never [lost] sight of the good that could somehow be made out of this awful conflict" would want to leave his country in their time of need, even though his duties as President had really taken a toll on him. It's interesting also to think about how this country would be different if he had chosen to take more protective measures, if Booth had gotten cold feet as well, if he hadn't died that day.