April 14 1865 President Abraham Lincoln shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth

Abraham Lincoln Research Site, ^

[Keith]

Oh boy, you made my day...nothing like a little cracker swagger...

Go grab your axe handle, Lester Maddox needs you at the cross burning.

[WhiskeyPapa]

President Lincoln's primary purpose was to save the Union.

Sure it was. He didn't want to burn Atlanta and loot farms. We made him do it.

What? We being the clueless morons who made war on the lawful government? Hang your hat with the losers then.

Stop and think for a minute. Sherman loots farms and the rebel armies disintegrate within months. Wasn't that the best way to bring the most men home to their families the quickest?

Perhaps you shed a sad tear for the way Hood immolated his own army at Franklin.

You apparently cannot form a coherent thought of your own.

Walt

[Valin]

While Booth is an interesting character in the same vain as Billy Bonney or Doc Holiday,
A bit off-topic but I wonder why people are so interested in these kind of people? Go into a bookstore and look at all the books on Manson, the mafia,...etc, movies about Hanibal Lecter.

Not that I have any answer, just something hanging around the edges of my (so called) mind.

[billbears]

While I loathe Lincoln's destructive policies, I am of the firm belief that had he lived, "Reconstruction" would not have been as devastating to the South or the nation as a whole

Fully agreed

[Valin]

If I'm not mistaken Dixie was one of his favorite songs.

[AppyPappy]

You apparently cannot form a coherent thought of your own.

Do you agree with Lincoln that the "Negroes" should be shipped back to Africa?

Time for crickets.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Whatever his negative qualities, Andrew Johnon was very courageous, and he was not acting to get ahead of the Radicals. His hatred of the rebels was definitely from personal conviction -- as a self-made man, he hated the aristocratic plantation owner class. He was a "Billy Yank in the hills" -- a hillbilly.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Upon assuming the presidency, Andrew Johnson was the most vengeance-oriented person in the federal government -- and the Confederates knew it.

[WhiskeyPapa]

You apparently cannot form a coherent thought of your own.

Do you agree with Lincoln that the "Negroes" should be shipped back to Africa?

President Lincoln --did--not-- hold that position.

If he did, you could show it in the record, right?

Here is a letter that President Lincoln wrote that impinges on this subject:

John A Andrew

Executive Mansion,

Washington, February 18. 1864.

Yours of the 12th was received yesterday. If I were to judge from the letter, without any external knowledge, I should suppose that all the colored people South of Washington were struggling to get to Massachusetts; that Massachusetts was anxious to receive and retain the whole of them as permament citizens; and that the United States Government here was interposing and preventing this. But I suppose these are neither really the facts, nor meant to be asserted as true by you. Coming down to what I suppose to be the real facts, you are engaged in trying to raise colored troops for the U. S. and wish to take recruits from Virginia, through Washington, to Massachusetts for that object; and the loyal Governor of Virginia, also trying to raise troops for us, objects to you taking his material away; while we, having to care for all, and being responsible alike to all, have to do as much for him, as we would have to do for you, if he was, by our authority, taking men from Massachusetts to fill up Virginia regiments. No more than this has been intended by me; nor, as I think, by the Secretary of War. There may have been some abuses of this, as a rule, which, if known, should be prevented in future.

If, however, it be really true that Massachusetts wishes to afford a permanent home within her borders, for all, or even a large number of colored persons who will come to her, I shall be only too glad to know it. It would give relief in a very difficult point; and I would not for a moment hinder from going, any person who is free by the terms of the proclamation or any of the acts of Congress."

A. Lincoln

Walt

[Conspiracy Guy]

John Wilkes Booth, cowardly, sniveling little twerp! Sounds like about 75% of hollyweird doesn't it.

[Revolting cat!]

April 14, huh? Are you sure the assassin wasn't just pi$$ed off after doing his 1040 form?

(Howz that for an alternate version of history?!)

[jlogajan]

John Wilkes Booth, cowardly, sniveling little twerp!

That he is still a southern hero is a sad commentary on the depth of the field of their choices.

[Wondervixen]

Uncle B.S., Where were you April 14, 1865?

April your 14th, 1865...

Body Guard...Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C...Eatin' popcorn, birddoggin' Lincoln, and tryin' to catch the last half of some play about somebody's cousin...Up to my ass in Milk Duds, a large Pepsi, and a row full of nosebleed seats...

'Bout that time, one of them Hollywood types tries to sneek past me in a mustache and Rayband sunglasses. I said you're either a Booth or one of them Baldwin brothers. Mrs. Lincoln will shoot me if I don't get your autograph...Here, hold this pistol and popcorn. I'm gonna go get something to write with.

Southern Comedian TIM WILSON

[TedsGarage]

Wrong about that, my Confederate patriot. It took the South 100 years to rouse itself from its post-Civil War doldrums. In the meantime, most of the industry, trade, culture, scholarship and money was in the North. The regions are much closer to parity now, but the South alone would have been a Second World Cotton Republic, isolated from the world because of its embrace of slavery. North and South may not always appreciate each other, but this nation's strength is in its variety. No one saw that better than Lincoln, who lived in Central Illinois, right on the boundary between this state's New England settlement and its Southern settlement.

[Valin]

R.E. Lee?

James Longstreet?

A.P. Hill?

Thomas Jackson?

I DO wonder just how much of a hero he was/is considered

John Wilkes Booth a legend in his own mind.

[JohnGalt]

I enjoy popular culture so feel fit to respond in kind to your post.

First, the recent fascination with serial killers has been linked to something called serial killer chic, that came just before heroin chic, and fits nicely in with declinist theories on American culture. However, there is also the morbid mystery element that runs through American culture generally beginning with Edgar Allen Poe and certainly best recalled by the Jack the Ripper phenomenon.

I consider, serial killer chic to be quite different than the very interesting story of William Bonney and Doc Holiday. Bonney, an easterner turned westerner, fought in a private war between cattle barons and managed to escape death numerous times. That Bonney could not escape his violent past led to his own death at the hands of a man who was able to change his ways, Pat Garrett, who had fought along side Billy in the Lincoln County Cattle Wars.

It is a truly interesting story and has fascinated Americans a hundred years on, popularized in such songs as Bob Dylans "Knockin on Heaven's Door." Both as a tale of the taming of the Western frontier, a tale of loyalty between two brothers, or simply that Governor Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, renegged on amnesty for Billy Bonney, thus violating America's sense of fairness.

Doc Holiday was more of a popular culture icon as an educated fellow who carried out a death wish in the Wild West prior to succumbing to tuberculosis.

The Mafia, on the other hand, entertains both the traditional 'morbid mystery' consumers, but also libertarians who see the Mafia as merely an extension of the state, only with a more interesting culture.

Lastly, Booth, a rather unstudied character, was the top actor of his day, slipping back and forth between the lines, performing the classics. He led a fascinating life in the context of a Shakespearean backdrop, even if he ended his days as a terrorist. Where as the future American regicides would be carried out by lone nuts and anarchists, Booth was truly a romantic figure.

[Lee'sGhost]

"It took the South 100 years to rouse itself from its post-Civil War doldrums."

Well, using your timeline that might be right. You need to back up. The original statement was, "If it weren't for him, America would be two weak nations, instead of one strong nation." If it were not for Lincoln secession may well have taken place without a war, allowing the South to continue to grow strong and pursue industry, which, thanks to unions, would have come down here in droves.

"In the meantime, most of the industry, trade, culture, scholarship and money was in the North."

Let's see, industry was growing and bound to get bigger. A new nation with new needs would have sparked more trade. Culture was abundant, especially in places like Charleston. The first public university was in NC. All of that plus a huge chuck of population was destroyed during the Second War for Independence. The South would have become very strong, in absense of the War.

[Alouette]

John Wilkes Booth, cowardly, sniveling little twerp! Sounds like about 75% of hollyweird doesn't it.

He was exactly the 19th-century equivalent of today's pampered Hollywood elite--handsome stage starr. Although I do have a hard time imagining Alec Baldwin or Martin Sheen or Janeane Garofolo actually gunning down the President, so maybe it can be said that Booth had a tad more terrorist guts than they do.

[Non-Sequitur]

Also the same ones that the southern leaders wanted to keep in bondage. I would think that freedom in Central America would be preferable to that.

[fatboy]

Lee's Ghost,

Your comment to: "If it weren't for him, America would be two weak nations, instead of one strong nation."

You wrote: Well, I can see how you would feel that way about a North-only USA, but the CSA would have become a strong nation, just as it props up the North today.

True, today a case could be made for your statement as we know things today, but if the South had won the Civil War in 1865, not only would we have a weak North and even weaker South, most likely Texas would have broken with the Confederacy and taken other southwestern states with them. Other places like present day West Virginia and western North Carolinia did not like the way the confed. government treated them. The Richmond government had plenty of critics south of the Mason-Dixon line to be sure. If course the break-up of the Confed. as I propose would have hampered technological development and may have had an major effect on other world events such as WW1, WW11 .

A serious study of the political/economical situation in late 19 century USA and other world events since would have resulted in US being just another country if the "Union had been Disolved".It is not as easy as saying the the Souths GNP in the year 2003 would indicate great economic strength if the southern states were cut loose fron the union 125 years ago. States rights is a great thing but it would have caused major problems for the south in todays world, just think how hard it would be for each state to agree on how to defend itself from threats foreign and domestic? Organizations like NASA could not exist in this environment. It would be just like a mini EU.

BTW, the reason why the North (northeast)is in the handbasket is due to the liberals in power, not the worker mentality of the people.

Tom