Posted on 04/15/2015 11:05:21 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Because of figures like John Wilkes Booth I always wait for famous celebrities like RuPaul, George Clooney, and the likes of Barber Streisand to tell me who to vote for.
I listened to part of Dennis Prager this morning, there was an author of of a book about Lincoln’s assassination and about the manhunt. He said Booth gave the guard a business card and because he was a well known author, the guard let him pass.
Lincoln eschewed guards. I think there were only two, which included a guard seated outside of his box There had been many celebrations since the war had ended. He was exhausted. That night, he was doing what he wanted: to be alone but with a lot of people around. When they played Hail to the Chief, he was nearly in tears.
He told his advisers he had a dream, that something big (meaning good would happen.It huge ship that symbolized him, would be going into battle alone. He believed his dreams had portent.
The advisers remarked that every time he had that dream, something disastrous happened.
The day before was one of the happiest in his life. He was in a buggy ride with his wife Mary. There marriage had been deeply strained because of the war and because of the death of their son Willie. Lincoln said that when his presidency was over, they would move back to Chicago, and he would simply practice law.
His vice president who succeeded him, which many thought was needed on the ticket for votes, was a racist, and did not like the changes to the status of the blacks, e.g. citizenship, equal protection etc.
God Bless you President Lincoln. I wish we still had your birthday as a national holiday.
Excellent post.
He was Alec Baldwin....
Thank-you. I had a half hour drive to mass in another town to listen to the show, and did not hear the rest.
The author also made comparisons to Kennedy, who always wanted to appear in public with little security.At that time there was no secret service. An ordinary citizen could cool his heels in an anteroom, if he wanted to speak to the president about getting a pass to the South or have a son pardoned. There was no appointment needed, if the president had time, he would see you, and there was no background check, so conceivable an assassin could be in the oval office with him.
The author ( from the Heritage Foundation, I think) said this was the second mightiest blow to the country, after the death of George Washington.
I agree that we should have a separate Lincoln and Washington birthday.
From what I remember, Booth was in and out all day at Ford’s theater - one of his ne’er do well conspirators, Ned Spangler, was there that day. He would eventually hold Booth’s horse after the assassination. I do remember, though, that the guard at Lincoln’s box had slipped away. I think Booth had fooled with the lock of the box that afternoon - or created a peephole. He was very well-known in the theater community, lived in a hotel in Washington and would get his Dutch courage from the bar next door to Ford’s.
Lincoln also had a terrible dream that he had died and was lying in state.
I recommend to anyone who loves Lincoln to read Gore Vidal’s wonderful novel “Lincoln.”
In my previous post I meant to write actor no author. And because he was a famous actor, his celebrity gave him access and no amount of guards or scrutiny would have saved Lincoln from being faced with the murder Wilkes.
The author said that Wilkes was the head of the conspiracy, but there was someone they captured who was in on it. He alluded that they had more nefarious plans for President Lincoln, that might have included kidnapping and torture.
Never heard torture! The original plan was to kidnap him and have prisoners exchanged. No plan called for torture. Already, from what people are saying here, I’m having doubts about this book. After Lee surrendered, Booth changed the plan to assassination. There were about 5 or 6 conspirators. They were all caught except that rat John Surratt.
What was the play at Ford’s Theatre the night of the assassination?
“Our American Cousin”
This book’s been done already — “American Brutus”.
And Wilkes wasn’t nearly as popular in the day as his brother Edwin. He always resented being in his brother’s shadow. Edwin was a colossus on the stage. Wilkes was more the Danny Baldwin of the bunch, without the drugs.
“I think Booth had fooled with the lock of the box that afternoon - or created a peephole. “
Booth had drilled a peephole in the door to Lincoln’s box.
In the dim dark past of my childhood they had the door on display at Ford’s as I recall- Ford’s wasn’t restored at the time, just a sort of empty warehouse. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
And didn’t Booth once save Lincoln’s son from being killed by a train?
No, that was his brother Edwin.
I’ve been to the restored Ford’s a couple of time where they have the boot that Mudd had to cut off. Surratt Tavern is now a museum as is Mudd’s house. Fascinating!
Actually Booth was up and coming and breathing down Edwin’s neck. At the time of Lincoln’s assassination, Edwin was no where near the legend he would become. Very famous, no doubt, but nothing like the international star he would later become. And their career trajectories were very different: Edwin the thoughtful, modernizing actor, John the romantic, swashbuckling lead.
Interesting! Thanks for posting. Yeah, I can see the conspiracy theorists of the time jumping on Catholicism when the conspirators themselves were really just southern sympathizers under the sway of JW Booth. Mrs. Surratt, I think, certainly knew of the conspiracy. Whether she should have been hanged is another story.
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