LINCOLN ASSASINATION

Transcription

1 LINCOLN ASSASINATION Primary Documents & Questions FEBRUARY 5, 2015 U.S. HISTORY T.H. Bell Junior High School

2 On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot. Accompanying him at Ford's Theater that night were his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, a twenty-eight year-old officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancee, Clara Harris. After the play was in progress, a figure with a drawn derringer pistol stepped into the presidential box, aimed, and fired. The president slumped forward. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, dropped the pistol and waved a dagger. Rathbone lunged at him, and though slashed in the arm, forced the killer to the railing. Booth leapt from the balcony and caught the spur of his left boot on a flag draped over the rail, and shattered a bone in his leg on landing on the stage. He then raised his arm and shouted sic semper tyrannis which in Latin means thus always to tyrants. Though injured, he rushed out the back door, and disappeared into the night on horseback. A doctor in the audience immediately went upstairs to the box. The bullet had entered through Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eye. He was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried across Tenth Street, to a boarding-house opposite the theater, but the doctors' best efforts failed. Nine hours later, at 7:22 AM on April 15th, Lincoln died. At almost the same moment Booth fired the fatal shot, his accomplice, Lewis Paine, attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Seward lay in bed, recovering from a carriage accident. Paine entered the mansion, claiming to have a delivery of medicine from the Secretary's doctor. Seward's son, Frederick, was brutally beaten while trying to keep Paine from his father's door. Paine slashed the Secretary's throat twice, then fought his way past Seward's son Augustus, an attending hospital corps veteran, and a State Department messenger. Paine escaped into the night, believing his deed complete. However, a metal surgical collar saved Seward from certain death. The Secretary lived another seven years, during which he retained his seat with the Johnson administration, and purchased Alaska from Russia in There were at least four conspirators in addition to Booth involved in the mayhem. Booth was shot and captured while hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died later the same day, April 26, Four co-conspirators, Paine, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt, were hanged at the gallows of the Old Penitentiary, on the site of present-day Fort McNair, on July 7, Questions 1. When was Lincoln shot? Where was he when he was shot? Where had the bullet entered Lincoln s body? Where did it lodge? 2. What did Booth do and say after he shot Lincoln? 3. Who did Lewis Paine try to kill? How did he try to kill him? Who else was involved in the assassination plot? What happened to them?

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4 Opinion Q & A (All of the answers will be your own opinion. Please answer each question thoroughly 1. Why were the pictures of the accused the first thing displayed on the poster? Why are the words The Murderer bolded and such a large size? 2. Why was there a bigger reward for Booth than there was for Surratt or Harold? Why do you think a reward was offered? 3. From the descriptions of the accused criminals, do you think that you would be able to identify them? Why or why not? Lewis Payne, 1865 On the night of April 14, 1865, at the very moment when John Wilkes Booth stepped into the President s box at Ford s Theatre and fired a deadly shot at President Abraham Lincoln, Lewis Payne entered the bed chamber of Secretary of State William H. Seward and began to attack him with a large knife. Seward was wearing a neck brace that blunted the blows and saved his life. Payne, also known as Lewis Powell, was an Alabama native and Confederate veteran. He, Booth, and others also planned to murder Vice President Andrew Johnson and General Ulysses S. Grant that night, in hopes of crippling the federal government, but those attempts never took place. Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner took this photograph of Payne as he was held in federal custody; he was executed for his crime on July 7, 1865.

5 Questions Opinion 1. Why did Payne attack Seward the same time that Booth attacked Lincoln? 2. What saved Seward s life? Who else was supposed to be killed? Opinion 3. Why did Payne and Booth want to kill Seward & Lincoln? What would have happened if Lincoln, Seward, Vice-President Johnson and General Ulysses S. Grant had all been killed? Death Scene Gideon Welles served Lincoln as Secretary of the Navy. On the night of April 14, he was awakened with the news that Lincoln had been shot. Together with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, he rushed to Ford's Theater. They found the area packed with an excited crowd and learned that Lincoln had been taken to a house across the street. Clamoring up the stairs, Welles asked a doctor he recognized about Lincoln's condition. The physician replied that the President might live another three hours. We pick up his story as he enters the room where Lincoln lay: "The President had been carried across the street from the theater to the house of a Mr. Peterson. We entered by ascending a flight of steps above the basement and passing through a long hall to the rear, where the President lay extended on a bed, breathing heavily. Several surgeons were present, at least six, I should think more. Among them I was glad to observe Doctor Hall, who, however, soon left. I inquired of Doctor Hall, as I entered, the true condition of the President. He replied the President was dead to all intents, although he might live three hours or perhaps longer. The giant sufferer lay extended diagonally across the bed, which was not long enough for him. He had been stripped of his clothes. His large arms, which were occasionally exposed, were of a size which one would scarce have expected from his spare appearance. His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking. I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there. After that his right eye began to swell and that part of his face became discolored. Senator Sumner was there, I think, when I entered. If not he came in soon after, as did Speaker Colfax, Mr. Secretary McCulloch, and the other members of the cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Seward. A double guard was stationed at the door and on the sidewalk to repress the crowd, which was of course highly excited and anxious. The room was small and overcrowded. The surgeons and members of the cabinet were as many as should have been in the room, but there were many more, and the hall and

6 other rooms in the front or main house were full. One of these rooms was occupied by Mrs. Lincoln and her attendants, with Miss Harris. Mrs. Dixon and Mrs. Kinney came to her about twelve o'clock. About once an hour Mrs. Lincoln would repair to the bedside of her dying husband and with lamentation and tears remain until overcome by emotion. A door which opened upon a porch or gallery, and also the windows, were kept open for fresh air. The night was dark, cloudy, and damp, and about six it began to rain. I remained in the room until then without sitting or leaving it, when, there being a vacant chair which some one left at the foot of the bed, I occupied it for nearly two hours, listening to the heavy groans and witnessing the wasting life of the good and great man who was expiring before me. About 6 A.M. I experienced a feeling of faintness, and for the first time after entering the room a little past eleven I left it and the house and took a short walk in the open air. It was a dark and gloomy morning, and rain set in before I returned to the house some fifteen minutes later. Large groups of people were gathered every few rods, all anxious and solicitous. Some one or more from each group stepped forward as I passed to inquire into the condition of the President and to ask if there was no hope. Intense grief was on every countenance when I replied that the President could survive but a short time. The colored people especially-and there were at this time more of them, perhaps, than of whites - were overwhelmed with grief. A little before seven I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments. His wife soon after made her last visit to him. The death struggle had begun. Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of the bed. He, bore himself well but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud, turning his head and leaning on the shoulder of Senator Sumner. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven" Lincoln s death bed scene

7 Questions 1. In what position did Gideon Welles serve Lincoln? What did he do as soon as he woke up? 2. What did Doctor Hall tell Gideon Welles about true condition of President Lincoln? 3. How did Gideon Welles describe Lincoln? 4. Who were the five people mentioned by Welles in the fourth paragraph? 5. How was the night described by Welles? What did Welles listen to and what did he witness? 6. Where did Welles go at 6 a.m.? What did he notice about the large groups of people who were gathered? What did he say about the colored people? 7. What did Pres. Lincoln s son Robert do when he gave way to overpowering grief? What time did Lincoln die? Alternate ending activity Now that you have read a lot of material and answered a lot of questions about Lincoln s assassination, I would like you to think of an alternate ending to this story. It could be that Lincoln was shot but survived. It could be that Booth was captured before he ever had the chance to shoot Lincoln. Write about how Lincoln s life and our nation would have been different had he not been shot. Use the back of this paper to complete this assignment. You should write at least two paragraphs but if you write more I will give you ten extra points for this assignment.