...The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln April 14, 1865, a terrifying event happened that would have a long-lasting impact on the nation; the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. That night Lincoln was attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s theatre with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and friends Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. While he was watching the play, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by the famous actor John Wilkes Booth. Booth was pro-confederate and was against the abolition of slavery, which led to his hatred of Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln became unconscious after he was shot and ended up dying the next morning at 7:22 a.m. His assassination was just five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant., thus having the civil war come close to an end. Lincoln’s death created mourning all over the world...
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...The end of the Civil War presented a unique crossroads for the war torn United States. How would the North and South reunite? At the helm, there was a moderate politician and a reflective thinker – President Abraham Lincoln. One of the greatest statesmen of all time, Lincoln advocated a lenient stance, envisioning a “restoration” whereby the southern states would pledge allegiance and reenter the Union under the Constitution. Lincoln proved to be a great negotiator and worked successfully during the war to join opposing sides to unite behind the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13th Amendment. Lincoln appealed to the common man and was revered by many of his era. One of his greatest admirers was poet Walt Whitman who penned his famous poem “Captain, My Captain” as a tribute to Lincoln and, according to Reynolds in Lincoln and Whitman, called Lincoln “the greatest, best, most characteristic,...
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...Theories of Lincoln’s Assassination There are numerous theories about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. One of the theories is the Simple conspiracy theory, which states that John Wilkes Booth and his small band of co-conspirators planned to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth was considered as a racist and a Southern patriot. Ulysses G. Grant, General of Union’s army suspended the exchange of southern prisoners of war, which led Booth to plan to abduct the President. Booth was considered as the leader of this small group of co-conspirators that included Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell, John Surratt, and Mary Surratt. The reason behind this plot was that it would have enabled the South to rise up and have a chance for victory in the Civil War. Booth’s and his co-conspirators’ plot was to kidnap Abraham Lincoln, take him to Richmond, and exchange him with Southern prisoners of war. However, when the plan failed, Booth took revenge and began another plot of assassinating Lincoln. Booth also wanted to assassinate the Vice President, Andrew Johnson and the Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Assassinating the top three, powerful figures, Booth knew it would have given a major blow to the government of the United States. Therefore, Booth assigned Lewis Powell to kill William H. Seward and George Atzerodt to kill Andrew Johnson. George Atzerodt backed down and Lewis Powell attacked and injured Seward critically but he was not able...
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...Lincoln’s assassination set a series of events in order that would cause John Wilkes Booth to be hated by Southerners because of what he caused by his act of violence against the federal government. Vice President Andrew Johnson, who nobody seemed to like would now become President of the United Sates and would have to handle the chaos that the assassination caused around the nation. Booth and his actions caused Edwin Stanton to conduct the first nationwide police investigation for the assassin and his accomplices with the use of evidence and interrogations of known suspects. The manhunt for Booth was a massive and unprecedented one never before seen in American history. All who supported Booth and his actions were to be punished swiftly and harshly. People around the nation were attacked because they supported Booth or because they even looked like him. The United States was now in an even more state of chaos after the war because they have never experienced such an event as a Presidential assassination. The nation was determined to avenge the death of President Lincoln. The government was able to corner Booth on April 26, 1865 at Garrett's tobacco barn in Port Royal, Virginia and Booth was shot and killed. Once the trials were underway for the accomplices of Booth, the question became how are the criminals going to punished for their crimes against the government? The...
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...was from the Democratic Party, in 1864, Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate under the National Union Party banner. When Lincoln died April 15, 1865, Johnson became president. He did not have a Vice President. Johnson now had the job of trying to heal the country after the Civil War left the country in ruins. President Andrew Johnson lifted himself out of extreme poverty to become President of the United States. He was a man with little education who climbed the political ladder and held many different high offices. As a strict constitutionalist, Johnson believed in limiting the powers of the federal government. President Johnson was one of the most bellicose Presidents who “fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment. Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the President that the Southern states were economically in...
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...What does one do after the bonds of slavery have been broken (pg. 275). African Americans in the South demonstrated their freedom in numerous ways, large and small. Many bought dogs, some purchased firearms, and several held mass meetings without white supervision, all actions that were often denied them under slavery. While ex-slaves explored a life based on the free-labor vision, members of the defeated Confederacy sought to maintain as much of the old order as possible. To this end, they worked to prevent ex-slaves from acquiring economic autonomy or political rights. (pg. 276), this is how the diversity issues began between the North and the South, because the growing northern disinterest in the plight of America’s southern blacks population and southern resistance to Reconstruction. After the war, and following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Southerners watched to see how the U.S might act against them. When they were not severely punished they pushed to regain as much power over former slaves as possible. Republicans in Congress launched...
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...rented that night. He then fired a single shot into the back Lincoln’s head. Rathbone had immediately rushed at him, however, Booth stabbed him in the shoulder after shooting Lincoln and leaped off of the high balcony shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus ever to tyrants!”-which was the Virginia state motto)....
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...below. Be specific and give examples from the history we have learned.! A. An amendment to the U.S. Constitution changes laws for the entire country. Three amendments changed laws especially for African Americans. Explain how each of the following amendments changed the law for African Americans. (10 points total)! ! a. Thirteenth Amendment (3 points)! ! ! The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It freed all African Americans and prevented them from being forced to return to slavery.! ! ! b. Fourteenth Amendment (4 points)! ! ! ! c. Fifteenth Amendment (3 points)! ! ! ! The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. All African Americans were now counted for purposes of representation.! The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. Therefore it gave Black men the right to vote. ! B. Answer the following questions:(10 points)! ! a. What challenges did the United States face in redefining the Union after the war? (1 pt).! ! ! Reuniting the Union of the United State was a huge...
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...detectives rushed into to retrieve Booth’s body before the entire barn was encompassed by the inferno. Corbett had shot Booth because he believed that Booth was ready to open fire on his fellow soldiers (Booth 19). They laid Booth on the porch, where he laid for hours, paralyzed. He disgustedly called his hands “Useless, useless” and his final words were “Tell my mother I died for my country” (Swanson 411). Around 7 A.M. on April 26, 1865, almost two weeks after assassinating the President of the United States, the paralyzed John Wilkes Booth died (Booth 19). Lincoln’s assassination dramatically changed how the North and South would be reconciled after the brutal four-year Civil War (White 8). Lincoln’s death brought out many different reactions from Americans across the country (White 28). According to Joel Achenbach, Lincoln’s assassination “was a true conspiracy, born of the war and its underlying causes” (Achenbach 49). At Lincoln’s...
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...Assassination is the killing of a prominent person, either for political or religious reasons or sometimes for payment. Throughout the history of the United States, eight Presidents have died while in office. Four of them died of natural causes, but four others died from assassination. The first assassination of a U.S. President was in 1865, and the last assassination that has occurred was in 1963. Stricter policies have been enforced to ensure the safety for people in office. The very last President to get assassinated was John F. Kennedy, but the very first President to get assassinated was Abraham Lincoln. Overall, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln impacted the world in a negative way and made the United States look weak. Abraham Lincoln...
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...What Effect Did Abraham’s Assassination Have? Assassination Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States on November 6, 1860. Lincoln was assassinated April 15, 1865. Lincoln’s assassination effected the country a great deal. Lincoln was elected into office at the brink of the civil war. He was blamed for everything that went wrong in the country. Southerners hated him because he was trying to get rid of slavery. This was the only way they knew how to live. After all slavery was around for 400+ years. Some of them were more mad then others. John Wilkes Booth was the one angry enough to kill him. Abraham Lincoln is one of the most significant men to have served as the president of the United States of America. While president the United States was divided into two sections, the Confederated States (southern) and United States (northern). The Country was at the brink of the civil war. Lincoln did not support the confederate states because he did not believe in slavery. Abraham eventually united the country at the end of the civil war. Lincoln is mostly known for signing the emancipation proclamation. Which eventually lead to the freedom of slaves. His speech the Gettysburg Address still has an...
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...The United States, in regards to liberalism, was not how we know it today. A period of time, ranging from 1865-1877, embarked upon us a series of events that would shape American history eternally: The Radical Reconstruction. Following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson was promoted to President as a result, and Republicans were practically in control of policymaking within Congress. During this critical period of turmoil between the liberal North and restrictive South, Republicans were adamant in achieving certain goals for America, many of which consisted of rights for black people, all of which the democratic South did not want. Johnson, who was not a Radical Republican, made many efforts to eradicate the progress...
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...Planz Strayer University Contemporary U.S. History HIS 105 Professor Regan Smith January 27, 2013 America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains This paper will address the period from Reconstruction through widespread industrialization in the Western United States during the time period of 1865 – 1900. 1. Identify at least (2) two major historical turning points in the period under discussion. The year 1865 began an era of presidential reconstruction. Upon Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson became president. During this time he unveiled his plan for Reconstruction: (1) scrapping the “40-acres-and-a-mule” plan suggested in the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau and (2) creating a tough loyalty oath that many southerners could take in order to receive a pardon for their participation in the rebellion (Schultz, 2012, p. 278). Many southern states returned Confederate leaders to political power and they went onto create “black codes” modeled on the slave codes that existed prior to the Civil War (Schultz, 2012, p. 279). Johnson did nothing to prevent the South from re-imposing these conditions on the black population (Schultz, 2012, p. 279). This led The Radical Republican party made up of northerners since no southerners were in congress yet, a time known as Radical Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans moved swiftly to pass the important Civil Rights Act, which counteracted the South’s new black codes (Schultz, 2012, p. 279). A second historical event, The Industrial...
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...RECONSTRUCTION, WHAT WENT WRONG I. Historiography of Reconstruction A. Early Views Journalists, Poets, & Rebels Negative view of Reconstruction Sidney Andrews, The South Since the War (1866) John Dennett, The South as It Is. Southern frame of reference Sidney Lanier (poet) Attempt to justify Civil War B. Early Professional Historians John Ford Rhodes Ohio Democrat Not impartial Blamed North for problems of Reconstruction’ Claimed Black Rule forced on South at point of bayonet John William Burgess Tennessee Unionist Former Union soldier Studied at University of Berlin Organized History Graduate Program at Columbia University Produced historians such as U.B. Phillips and William Archibald Dunning Traditionalist view of Reconstruction Burgess, Phillips & Dunning Basic view: Stressed Southern problems Minimized achievements of Freedmen Regarded White Supremacy as normal in South C. Dunning School And Traditionalism William Archibald Dunning Taught at Columbia University Attracted best historical minds of his day Wrote histories of their own states James W. Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi (1901) Walter Lynwood Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905) William W. Davis, Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida (1913) Clara Mildred Thompson, Reconstruction in Georgia (1915) Histories very detailed and accurate BUT hostile...
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...Reconstruction will continue to be one of the most hotly contested periods of time in US history. It is a time the still young country was trying to slowly mend the wounds torn open by the War of the Rebellion, or the Civil War. It was these moments that would determine the fate of the freedman in the south, and all over. The article “The New View of Reconstruction” by Eric Foner sheds brilliant new light on an age-old opinion. It was a commonly held belief that Reconstruction was the time when the radical northerners, or the Vindictives, enforced black supremacy upon the helpless south, while the carpetbaggers made a fortune amid the chaos. Eric Foner’s article highlights that this interpretation of Reconstruction was fostered by anti-Reconstruction propaganda and adopted academically by William Dunning around the turn of the century. He further brings out that films like Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind spread the myth-like idea of the years after the Civil War. Foner explains that this view of Reconstruction was widely accepted because it fit with the political and social mentalities of the time that allowed white southerners to vehemently oppose integration and true black suffrage. Despite the convenience of the traditional view of Reconstruction it would soon lose prominence. The original opinion was that Lincoln was ready to accept the South with little reprimands and that Johnson tried to fulfill Lincoln’s policies, the current opinion, as stated by Foner, is “President...
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