THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - ABE DEFENDING HIS MEMORIAL

Today in history Andrew Johnson became the 17th POTUS and Abe Lincoln became a DEAD PRESIDENT!

Humor. Me. The 149th Anniversary

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #34 - "The Last Time Lincoln Was in a Theater"

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln went to Ford's Theater to watch "Our American Cousin". Now while the 16th President of the United States wanted to relax at the theater as the Civil War came to an end, an individual with so much opposition to the central government's involvement in freeing the enslaved black man wanted nothing more than to topple the U.S. government on the night of the 14th. John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators planned to kill Lincoln, the loyal Southern Democrat from Tennessee and the recently sworn-in vice president, Andrew Johnson, and the Secretary of State, William Seward. Lincoln and Johnson ran on the Union Party ticket, dumping his vice president Hannibal Hamlin for the loyal southerner of the opposition party. Seward had been the nation's chief diplomat since the start of Lincoln's first term and prior to that had challenged Lincoln for the Republican nomination in 1860 and was expected to win it. Booth was a southern sympathizer from a famous family of actors, he was not unknown like his future fellow presidential assassins like Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, or Lee Harvey Oswald (and his conspirators???).

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States. Republican from Illinois.

The guy that was to kill Vice President Johnson chickened out and Johnson had no clue about an attempt. Although Booth did try to make a connection between himself and the vice president, but nothing came of it.

Lewis Powell, one of Booth's co-conspirators, had the responsibility of killing Secretary Seward. Powell made it into the secretary's home and fought off his son before stabbing him. What saved Seward was a neck-brace he wore after being in a carriage accident. Powell fled the scene and was later caught.

Lewis Powell

The only one successful that night was Booth. He had scoped out Ford's Theater and planned out his moves. He knew the play's funniest line, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap." And that was when he was going to strike. Booth shot Lincoln with a derringer. After he shot Lincoln in the back of the head, Booth fought off Major Henry Rathbone, he and his wife shared the theater box with the First Couple, after bigger names like Grant and Sherman turned the play down. Booth slashed away at Rathbone, but the attack threw Booth off his game. Booth jumped from the box to the stage and his spur got caught in the flag. He broke his leg but before rushing off the stage yelled something to the audience. Two things were reported said, "Sic semper tyrannis!" which is the motto of Virginia and translates to "Thus always to tyrants." The line heard was "The South is avenged!"

Booth got on a horse, which he asked someone to hold, although they didn't know why, and he rode out of town. The Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, issued a manhunt for Booth and his accomplices. Booth sought help for his leg and eventually made his way to Garrett's farm and stayed in the barn until Federal troops circled the barn with fire. A soldier shot Booth and he died shortly afterward. His conspirators were tried and hung for the crime. Among those executed on July 7, 1865, was the first female, Mary Surratt.

John Wilkes Booth

But on the night of April 14th, doctors in Ford's Theater tried to save the president's life. Fearful that President Lincoln would not survive the bumpy road back to the Executive Mansion, they moved the president across the street. Lincoln died the next morning. It is said that Stanton said, "now he belongs to the angels" and later he changed his quote to "now he belongs to the ages."

Johnson was sworn-in as the 17th president of the United States. Lincoln's plans for Reconstruction of the South would never come to light and a political power struggle between President Johnson and the Radical Republicans would harm Reconstruction and Civil Rights for about 100 years until after another assassinated president is succeeded by another Vice President Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States. Democrat from Tennessee.

POTUS QUOTUS - AL16 SECOND INAUGURAL 1865 - "Best Second Inaugural Address Ever."

Steven's Lincoln

I loved Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, both as a student of history and of film. No longer is Henry Fonda the Abraham Lincoln of cinema, now it is Daniel Day-Lewis. 1860s America was brought to life in the Dreamworks picture set in the last four months of Lincoln's life.

It tells the story of a recently reelected Lincoln that seeks to pass the 13th Amendment before the end of his first term. A year and a half prior, Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation which limited freeing slaves in the rebel States. The 13th Amendment was to abolish it for all time by writing it into the Constitution. He must bring a divided Republican Party, conservatives and radicals, together while still trying to get Democratic support in the House of Representatives, the place where the legislative action takes place. We see the two sides argue like nothing C-SPAN has ever shown. Another obstacle Lincoln must face is the peace envoy from the rebel States. The peace talks are used as a reason not to pass the amendment.

Legislative procedure and wartime diplomacy are turned into a screenplay with the main tension: will Lincoln get the 13th Amendment passed in the House of Representatives? With the tension of the 3rd Act, Lincoln meeting with envoy from the South. Like a good character in any film, Lincoln has obstacles he must over come and what we get a glimpse of is 19th Century politics, as Lincoln plays politics to accomplish a truly noble goal of abolishing slavery with the 13th Amendment. We see Lincoln the politician, which all great presidents are. We also see Lincoln the man.

Lincoln shows his human side from visiting the troops, to giving piggy-back rides to his son Tad, to arguing with his wife. We also get to see the human side of other 19th Century figures and the struggles with accepting equality with blacks, both from a tolerant and intolerant view. The human side was brought to life, giving a glimpse of world known through historical bullet points.

This film was about a politician trying to do good for his country and it happened that it took place two months before his death. The film never really touched on his assassination, except for a couple of beats, once in the beginning and then again at the end. But it wasn't a rehash of the conspiracy that is well known...well to a good number of people. I'm sure a good portion know the basics of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy which 1/3 of was played out on April 14, 1865. Spoiler alert, for real too, we never see the Lincolns and the Rathbones (a total 19th Century sounding name) at Ford's Theater, just that Lincoln is running late for an evening out with the young couple. Just telling that moment in time can be an entire picture. Spielberg approaches the moment of assassination moment from the average Washingtonian that night in nation's capital with the young Tad as our emotional and character connection. All that is accomplished to also resolve the politician, human, and character by introducing the historical figure of Abraham Lincoln.

Today in POTUStory

Today in 1809 the myth, the legend, and the man...well just the man was born. The myth and the legend would come on April 15, 1865.

200 years ago our nation's 16th president of the United States was born in Kentucky. He and his family then moved to Indiana before settling down in his home state he has become associated with Illinois.


The 16th President of the United States

Lincoln would go on to become a lawyer traveling the judicial circuit of Illinois. As a lawyer he honed his skills which would help him become the great writer and speaker of his later years.

From 1847-1849, Lincoln served one term in the United States House of Representatives during the Mexican-US War in which he strongly opposed. While he would go on to become a founding member of the Republican Party, he served in the House as a member of the Whigs, a political party which would contribute to the founding of the Grand Old Party.

Lincoln would rise to national prominence in the most famous senate race in U.S. history. In 1858 Lincoln would debate his Democratic opponent Stephen Douglas and utter the famous "house divide" lines in terms of the nation existing half slave and half free. Although not competing in a directly elected senate contest since this took place prior to 1913, the Democrats won the majority in the State legislature and thus elected Douglas to the U.S. Senate. Lincoln may have lost but he became a national figure.


The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

In 1860 the New York Republican Party invited Lincoln to speak at Cooper Union. His speech elevated his status within the Republican Party. That year Lincoln would take on the big names of the Republican Party for the party's presidential nomination. Men like William Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Edward Bates of Missouri. Lincoln, the one term Representative from Illinois, would be the victor in the contest against the heavy weights.


Lincoln's chief rival for the Republican nomination and his pick for Secretary of State, William Seward

By November Lincoln would face three other opponents for the presidency: the incumbent vice president John Breckinridge, John Bell, and his former opponent for the U.S. senate, Stephen Douglas. Lincoln won.

With Lincoln's election, or the election of a Republican, the South protested in form of succeeding from the Union. Lincoln would be inaugurated as president without a complete Union of States.


Seal of the Confederate States of America

Those that left the Union feared Lincoln would abolish their way of life or violate their States' Right. Lincoln made it clear he had no intention of doing such a thing. But that did not stop the southern States from leaving the Union and rebelling.

Lincoln's term would become defined by war like no other president in U.S. history. While Lincoln struggled with the war he thought would be over quickly, he also tried to maintain the status of the Union by continuing construction on the dome of the Capitol or building the transcontinental railroad connecting east and west.

The war between the States (or the Civil War or The War against Northern Aggression) was not fought on the issue of slavery. For Lincoln the war was fought to preserve the idea of the Union which was established in 1776. The war took on the notion of ending slavery by January of 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, freeing the slaves within the States in rebellion. With that new cause taken by President Lincoln, the war was not only fought to preserve the Union and free the slaves but to essentially fight for a new definition of what the United States was truly about.

All the way up until 1864, Lincoln thought he would be a one term president. But as successes came in by Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Sherman, Lincoln's election became clear. Instead of running as a Republican, he ran on the Union Party ticket with Democrat Andrew Johnson, the only senator from the South to remain loyal to the Union. The Union Party won and Lincoln was reelected.

Lincoln was determined to not punish the South and he made it clear in his Second Inaugural Address as he declared "With malice toward none, with charity for all."


Lincoln's Second Inaugural on the east front of the Capitol

Lincoln would be shot by southern sympathizer, Confederate spy, and well known actor John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, creating the myth and the legend of the man.


John Wilkes Booth

After his death Abraham Lincoln became a secular saint to some Americans and a war criminal to others. Historians rank him as the best or second best president (George Washington and Lincoln duke it out for the top two spots), while others claim him to be a tyrant and should be removed from Mount Rushmore.

No matter what you believe about Abraham Lincoln, savior of the Union or aggressor toward southerners, he now belongs to the ages.