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April 14, 1865 President Lincoln Shot
History Channel.com ^ | 4/14/2005 | staff

Posted on 04/14/2005 6:40:53 PM PDT by kellynla

At Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally wounds President Abraham Lincoln. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War.

Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.

Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene's acclaimed performance in Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater on April 14, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into a paralyzing disarray.

On the evening of April 14, conspirator Lewis T. Powell burst into Secretary of State Seward's home, seriously wounding him and three others, while George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Vice President Johnson, lost his nerve and fled. Meanwhile, just after 10 p.m., Booth entered Lincoln's private theater box unnoticed, and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of his head. Slashing an army officer who rushed at him, Booth jumped to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]--the South is avenged!" Although Booth had broken his left leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he succeeded in escaping Washington.

The president, mortally wounded, was carried to a cheap lodging house opposite Ford's Theater. About 7:22 a.m. the next morning, he died--the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth, pursued by the army and secret service forces, was finally cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and died from a possibly self-inflicted bullet wound as the barn was burned to the ground. Of the eight other persons eventually charged with the conspiracy, four were hanged and four were jailed.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
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To: conservlib
New Orleans is French cuisine

How about Cajun?

Not really french... I suppose a Crawfish Etouffe' is something served in Paris during Cajun Days festival

421 posted on 04/21/2005 9:03:38 AM PDT by Zavien Doombringer (Have you gotten your Viking Kittie Patch today? http://www.visualops.com/patch.html)
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass. Of consequence, when they act, they act in their States.

Wanna bet?

"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes."

That 'political dreamer' was George Washington.

422 posted on 04/21/2005 9:12:58 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: 4ConservativeJustices; capitan_refugio
To prove it, I'll post his entire post, with links and LINCOLN's words removed, and then you tell what was bannable about it?

Take out Lincoln's words and nothing was left. Your point was?

423 posted on 04/21/2005 9:16:19 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
Take out Lincoln's words and nothing was left. Your point was?

Exactly! NOTHING was left, yet this was the post that Nolu chan was suspended for posting. LINCOLN's words were the bannable material, not Nolu Chans!

424 posted on 04/21/2005 10:30:43 AM PDT by 4CJ (Good-bye Henry LeeII. Rest well my FRiend. || Quoting Lincoln OR JimRob is a bannable offense.)
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To: NYFreeper

Relative of mine was an officer on the Titanic.


425 posted on 04/21/2005 10:40:05 AM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Rule # 4. When liberals have factual evidence that their position is wrong they ignore the evidence)
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To: Non-Sequitur
That 'political dreamer' was George Washington.

Somehow, I miss the part where Washington advoctates. 'breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass.' Where does he advocate states to be abolished?

426 posted on 04/21/2005 11:26:06 AM PDT by 4CJ (Good-bye Henry LeeII. Rest well my FRiend. || Quoting Lincoln OR JimRob is a bannable offense.)
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To: capitan_refugio

Farewell.


427 posted on 04/21/2005 12:34:31 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
Somehow, I miss the part where Washington advoctates. 'breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass.' Where does he advocate states to be abolished?

Where do I advocate states be abolished? What I am agreeing with Washington on is that it was the People of the United States that rarified the Constitution. And it is the people of the United States, not the people of Virginia or South Carolina or Pennsylvania that the government is accountable to.

428 posted on 04/21/2005 12:37:35 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: capitan_refugio
I am under no posting restriction and never have been.

Oh really? Hee hee hee.

The scent of ozone is in the air...

429 posted on 04/21/2005 12:43:30 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: Non-Sequitur
What I am agreeing with Washington on is that it was the People of the United States that rarified the Constitution.

Sure. People of the states separately ratified. But not the people en masse, not one gigantic amalgamation ot the people in ONE convention. Not a consolidated democracy, but a republic of republics.

During debates [23 Jul 1787], the motion by Gouverneur Morris [NY] 'that the reference of the plan be made to one general convention, chosen and authorized by the people, to consider, amend, and establish the same.' It did not receive a second. The Constitution doos not have a single mechansism for an amalgamation of people to decide anything - all votes are by states.

The 'people' ratified by states, not in unison. When the 9th state ratified, 4 states no longer members of the union - 9 states left 4 states in the dust.

430 posted on 04/21/2005 1:07:27 PM PDT by 4CJ (Good-bye Henry LeeII. Rest well my FRiend. || Quoting Lincoln OR JimRob is a bannable offense.)
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
People of the states separately ratified. But not the people en masse, not one gigantic amalgamation ot the people in ONE convention. Not a consolidated democracy, but a republic of republics.

No. The people of the United States ratified it. Call it an amalgamation or lumpenproliteriat or whatever you want. The people spoke in the role as citizens of the United States. As John Marshall described it, "(The Constitution) was submitted to the people. They acted upon it in the only manner in which they can act safely, effectively, and wisely, on such a subject, by assembling in Convention. It is true, they assembled in their several States—and where else should they have assembled? No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass. Of consequence, when they act, they act in their States. But the measures they adopt do not, on that account, cease to be the measures of the people themselves, or become the measures of the State governments.” That's why it is government of, by, and for the people and not for the states.

431 posted on 04/21/2005 1:31:21 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
No. The people of the United States ratified it. Call it an amalgamation or lumpenproliteriat or whatever you want. The people spoke in the role as citizens of the United States.

When the 1st state ratified, the people of Delaware, and that state alone, ratified. They could not ratify for another state, thus, the "people of the United StateS" do not comprise the people of any other state. The people of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations were not members of the United StateS at that time. Each state ratified for itself and no other state.

But the measures they adopt do not, on that account, cease to be the measures of the people themselves, or become the measures of the State governments

Even if not all the people of the state aceded, they are still bound by the measures taken by the ratifying conventions - that's republican government. Note that the measures undertaken by the SOVEREIGNS of the state then becomes measures of the state governments. That's exactly what happened when the states seceded via conventions.

432 posted on 04/21/2005 2:05:30 PM PDT by 4CJ (Good-bye Henry LeeII. Rest well my FRiend. || Quoting Lincoln OR JimRob is a bannable offense.)
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To: capitan_refugio
what utter NONSENSE/NITITTERY!

are you REALLY dumb enough to believe that BILGE????

free dixie,sw

433 posted on 04/21/2005 2:39:54 PM PDT by stand watie (being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)
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To: Jim Robinson
GA, Jim!

well, at least SOME of the time, the KOOKS & south-HATERS get what they richly deserve.

free dixie,sw

434 posted on 04/21/2005 2:48:11 PM PDT by stand watie (being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)
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To: capitan_refugio
Your premise is wrong. Lincoln legally put down a rebellion. The "confederacy" was an illegal, insurgant, criminal enterprise ... a combination too powerful to be handled through the court sytem.

Interesting that you view the decision of the people of the South duly elected convention, direct election, and legislative acts to exercise the fundamental principle of the Declaration of Independence as 'criminal enterprises'. Do you write press releases for the PLA on Taiwan?

435 posted on 04/21/2005 3:10:39 PM PDT by Gunslingr3
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Comment #436 Removed by Moderator

To: JohnPigg

"The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination – that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves." - HL Mencken


437 posted on 04/21/2005 4:23:48 PM PDT by RunningJoke
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To: Gunslingr3

The founders were a " illegal, insurgant, criminal enterprise", too. Nothing that they did was sanctioned by law. But the difference is that they won and the confederates lost.


438 posted on 04/21/2005 5:30:11 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
But the difference is that they won and the confederates lost.

No, the difference is the view of law, and it's source and authority. It is a tyrannical mindset that seeks to criminalize the people as a source of local, sovereign political power.

439 posted on 04/21/2005 5:38:00 PM PDT by Gunslingr3
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To: Gunslingr3
It is a tyrannical mindset that seeks to criminalize the people as a source of local, sovereign political power.

When their actions are criminal then they should be criminalized. And unilateral secession as practiced by the confederates was not Constitutional.

440 posted on 04/21/2005 5:59:36 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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