Tuesday was the 150th Anniversary of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I meant to do a post about that sooner but tonight is just as good as any.
On Friday April 14th, 1865, Abraham Lincoln and his wife went to Ford's Theater in order to watch a play. The play was entitled "Our American Cousin" and was written by the English Playwright Tom Taylor. It was about a boorish American who goes to England in order to view his relatives. It was a very popular play.
At 10:15 P.M., shots rang out across the theater as the President was shot by John Wilkes Booth. It was meant to be part of a conspiracy to eliminate the top of the United States government and in the ensuing chaos, the Confederacy could get a start again. Booth managed to escape the theater but his co-conspirators didn't fare as well. All three men were captured.
Lincoln ended up dying the next morning. Lincoln was the first President to be assassinated.
It's hard to say what would have happened had Lincoln survived the attack. Part of me wants to say that Reconstruction wouldn't have been as brutal or as long. He wanted to welcome the Confederate States back into the fold and return things to relative normalcy as soon as possible. I don't know how successful he would have been at that though since there were many people looking for blood.
But sadly, the die was cast and we will never know.
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