Commemorating the 135th death anniversary:

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
 

BY MIHINDUKULASURIYA Susantha Fernando

THE son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Abraham Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for learning. Five months before receiving his party's nomination for President, he sketched his life: "I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-second families, perhaps I should say.

My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks..... My father ... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods.

There I grew up... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write and cipher... but that was all".

Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowledge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at New Salem, Illinois.

He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of courts for many years. He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of whom lived to maturity.

In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. His unconquerable spirit and the stupendous rise in politics earned him the sobriquet: "the man who came from the Log Cabin to the White House".

As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause.

On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue.

This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to the war. In his planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion.

The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds...."

There was one man who hated Abraham Lincoln. He was John Wilkes Booth. Loncoln represented everything Booth was against. Booth blamed Lincoln for all the South's ills. Born May 10, 1838, Booth was an actor who performed throughout the country in many plays. He wanted revenge.

In later summer of 1864 Booth began developing plans to kidnap Lincoln, take him to Richmond (the Confederate capital), and hold him in return for Confederate prisoners of war.

By January, 1865, Booth had organized a group of co-conspirators that included Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, John Surratt, Lewis Powell (also called Lewis Paine or Payne), George Atzerodt, and David Herold.

Additionally, Booth met with Dr. Samuel Mudd both in Maryland (where Mudd lived) and Washington, and he began using Mary Surratt's boardinghouse to meet with his co-conspirators.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Two days later Lincoln spoke from the White House to a crowd gathered outside.

Booth was present as Lincoln suggested in his speech that voting rights be granted to certain Blacks. Infuriated, Booth's plans now turned in the direction of Assassination.

On the morning of Friday, April 14, Booth dropped by Ford's Theatre and learned that the President and General Grant were planning to attend the evening performance of the play, Our American Cousin.

He held one final meeting with his co-conspirators. He said he would kill Lincoln at the theatre (he had since learned that Grant had left town). Atzerodt was to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood House where Johnson resided. Powell was assigned to kill Secretary of State William Seward. Herold would accompany Powell.

All attacks were to take place simultaneously at approximately 10.15 p.m. that night. Booth hoped the resulting chaos and weakness in the government would lead to a comeback for the South. The Presidential party arrived at Ford's at about 8.30 p.m.

Armed with a single shot Derringer and a hunting knife, Booth arrived at Ford's at about 9.30 p.m. Joseph Burroughs, a boy who worked at the theatre, held his horse in the rear alley. Booth went next door to a saloon for a drink.

He entered the front of Ford's Theatre around 10.07 p.m. Slowly he make his way toward the State Box where the Lincolns were sitting with Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone.

Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker of the Metropolitan Police Force, had left his post. At about 10.15 p.m. Booth opened the door to the State Box, shot Lincoln in the back of the head at near point-blank range, and struggle with Rathbone. Booth stabbed Rathbone in the arm and jumped approximately 11 feet to the stage below.

Flashing his knife, Booth shouted at the audience, and made his way across the stage in front of more than 1,000 people. Everything happened so fast no one had time to stop him. Booth went out through the back door, climbed on his horse, and escaped from the city using the Navy Yard Bridge.

Booth and Herold departed from Dr. Mudd's during the afternoon of April 15 and travelled south. Federal authorities caught up with them at Garrett's farm near Port Royal, Virginia, early in the morning of April 26. Hiding in a barn, Harold gave up.

Booth refused, so the barn was set on fire. Booth still didn't come out and was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Corbett had not been under orders to do this. Booth's body was searched, and a diary was among the things found. Booth's remains were returned to Washington where positive identification was made and an autopsy performed.

Within days Booth's co-conspirators were arrested by the government. They were tried by a military tribunal, and all were found guilty. Mrs. Surratt, Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold were all hanged on July 7, 1865.

Dr. Mudd, O'Laughlen, and Arnold were given life terms in prison. Edman "Ned" Spangler, a Ford's stagehand who was convicted of helping Booth escape from the theatre, received a sentence of 6 years in prison. The convictions of Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd have been hotly debated throughout the years. John Surratte escaped to Canada and then to Europe.

He was captured abroad and was tried in 1867 in a civil court. The trial ended with a deadlocked jury, and Surratt went free. O'Laughlen died in prison (Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas near Key West) in 1867.

Dr. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were all pardoned by President Andrew Johnson early in 1869. People have long wondered if there was a grand conspiracy behind the assassination of President Lincoln.

Mary Todd Lincoln, a couple of authors of the day and even some members of Congress thought that vice President Andrew Johnson was involved.

A special Assassination Committee was established to investigate any evidence linking Johnson to Lincoln's death. Nothing suspicious was ever found by the committee; yet a belief by some Americans that Johnson was somehow involved with Booth continued for many years.

(The article is written by the author/publisher of "Alien Mysteries in Sri Lanka and Egypt, The New Version". The book is available at leading bookshops).