Lincoln's Death Too Sad To Describe

The Guardian ^ | April 14, 1865 | Staff

[Parmenio]

President Lincoln and wife, with other friends, this evening visited Ford's theatre, for the purpose of witnessing the "American Cousin". The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them.

During the third set, and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggesting nothing serious, until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, and exclaiming, "Sic semper tyrannis" [thus perish all tyrants] and leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, making

[Parmenio]

This is obviously not "news" so Moderator, please place this where you see fit.

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. This is the news article which The Guardian ran at the time.

[rhombus]

Interesting writing style.

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

Wanna know who really was behind Lincoln's assassination?

Him

Edwin M. Stanton

Him and him:

Him:

Jay Cooke

Booth, like Oswald was just an easily manipulated tool....a patsy if you like...

[Fiji Hill]

While substitute teaching in a high school US history class, I showed a film about the life of Lincoln and then gave a quiz on the film. One of the questions was, "on what holiday did Lincoln die? a)Ash Wednesday, b)Shrove Tuesday, c) Good Friday, d) Super Bowl Sunday. Sure enough, one student insisted that he died on Super Bowl Sunday.

[Capt. Tom]

They had swift justice then.

Lincoln was shot dead on April 14, 1865, and the conspirators were hung 3 months later on July 7, 1865. The one on the left is a woman.

[I still care]

"The parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description."

And they don't describe it.

I wonder how they would handle that nowadays...

[captain_dave]

"While substitute teaching in a high school US history class, I showed a film about the life of Lincoln and then gave a quiz on the film. One of the questions was, "on what holiday did Lincoln die? a)Ash Wednesday, b)Shrove Tuesday, c) Good Friday, d) Super Bowl Sunday. Sure enough, one student insisted that he died on Super Bowl Sunday.

Ah, yes. A perceptive student. He selected "D", his grade on the test, right? ;-)

[D-Chivas]

Today we'd have an assassin defended by the likes of Ramsey Clark and criminal appeasers like The Pope, Kofi Annan, and Sean Penn wouldn't want the death penalty imposed. It would go on for years, thus extending the career of irritants like Nancy Grace and Keith Olbermann.

[jordan8]

a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggesting nothing serious

[derllak]

Did you give him his "go directly to jail" card? :)

[Tijeras_Slim]

Interesting, can you point me in the direction of additional info?

[Hegewisch Dupa]

For the record, it was a pretty crappy play too.

[Moose4]

On a high school field trip, we went to Ford's Theatre, and sat through a really execrable musical of some kind--I don't even remember what it was, I paid no attention to it. I was staring at that box for most of the night, somewhat awed to be in a place where such history was made.

Then a pigeon crapped on my head when I walked outside and I remembered I was in Washington, DC, the armpit of the Potomac.

Being a semi-unreconstructed Southerner, Lincoln is not exactly #1 on my hit parade. But I will say that I do believe that had he lived, Reconstruction would have been much less harsh, and the South would have assimilated back into the Union with much less bitterness. John Wilkes Booth did the Confederacy no favors, that's for sure.

}:-)4

[rellimpank]

--go here for a complete debunking of the "blame it on Edwin Stanton myth"--


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813191513/sr=8-1/qid=1145029898/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2025868-8929405?%5Fencoding=UTF8

[corkoman]

For the record, it was a pretty crappy play too.

Shame on you.

I cannot help but laugh whenever I hear someone ask "...other than that Mrs. Lincoln..."

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

Start with Otto Eisenschimml. Also read "The Lincoln Conspiracy: by Balsiger and Sellier....take a lot of that one with a grain to two of salt, maybe even a tin-foil hat, hehehe.

There's also a school of thought that says ultimitely Jefferson Davis was behind Lincoln's demise. It all starts with an ambushed us cavalry group who its discovered was really on a mission to assassinate Davis and the key Confederate leaders.

Davis was so incensed he ordered Judah Benjamin to have the Confederate Secret Service to retaliate by having Lincoln and top US cabinet members whacked. John Wilkes Booth was an agent of the Confederate Secret Service. In fact he used his traveling across the lines around the US when he toured as an actor to smuggle medications and quinine from the North to the South, where they were desperately needed. Booth is recruited into this scheme.

It gets better. There was also a CSS agent who even though 17 years older, bore a striking resemblance to Booth. His name was James William Boyd. He even shared Booth's initials and the "JWB" tattoo on his hand. Boyd had suffered a fractured left leg a year-and a half earlier.

So Booth, with the help of another CSS operative, John Surratt, recruits his merry little band of deadbeats, retards, and losers according to what is in the official public records and is the traditional viewpoint of this, the first presidential murder. as a limited conspiracy. There were also two earlier attempts at what Booth referred to as a capture. In one they intercepted the wrong carriage, and in trhe second, Lincoln, riding on horseback, had his stovepipe hat shot off his head.

So, Abe goes to Ford's on Good Friday and as soon as Harry Hawks says "I guess I know enough to turn you inside out you old gal, you...you sockdologizin' old man-trap, you." Booth enters into the box, shoots Lincoln, jumps to the stage, breaking his right leg, yelling Virginia's state motto, and rides off into the Maryland night.

Two weeks later Booth, (or someone said to have been), and fellow conspirator David Herold were cornered in a tobacco barn in northern Virginia. The union soldiers, under the command of Lafe Baker's chief lieutendants C.E. Conger, set fire to the barn. A somewhat unbalanced sergeant named Boston Corbett shot Booth through an open space through the wall against orders.

This man died and was identified as Booth. Namely by people who had never seen him up close. An autopsy was conducted on a navy ship in the Potomac and a busted leg was found to have happened, as Booth breaking his leg was suspected and with the arrest of Dr Mudd, confirmed.

The body had "JWB" tattooed on his right hand. But for whatever reason, the body was quickly buried under the armory prison.

Tis conspiracy says J.W Boyd was set up to be the fall guy, and was misidentified by Conger and Baker...eager to claim the huge rewards. So they covered up the fact that they screwed the pooch. Booth escapes to Europe and lives until 1886 or so.

I always thought the Stanton did it theory much more plausible because historically assassinations come from within the power structure and seldom from without. Plus since the Caesars started gettin' knocked off at a consistent rate assassination is 99.99999% a political act, the reasons of this one, once you get into them, are both supremely political and somewhat compelling.

And those two books I mentioned are a good place to start.