Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president. He served from 1861 to 1865. He led his country through the Civil War and ending slavery. He promoted the passage of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution. Lincoln was the one to select top generals like Ulysses S. Grant.
Lincoln defused the Trent affair. The Trent affair was a war with Britain in 1861. With Lincoln’s leadership, the Union was in control of the border slave states in the beginning of the war.Opponents of the war criticized Lincoln not compromising on the slavery issue. The Radical Republicans were an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party. They also criticized him for not going fast enough on removing slavery.At the end of the war Lincoln organized a view of Reconstruction. He was looking for a fast way to reunite the nation through a procedure of generous understanding. Lincoln had always been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.John Booth is a well-known actor and he is a spy for the confederates from maryland. He made a plan to kidnap Lincoln for a swap of confederate prisoners. On April 11 he attended a speech where Lincoln was talking about black rights. In anger he changed his plans and was determined to kill Lincoln. After finding out that Lincoln and the first lady would be attending Ford’s Theatre, he put his plans in the hands of two of his not-so-nice friends Vice Presiden Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.
Lincoln didn’t have his bodyguard near him while he attended the play, Our American Cousin, on April 14. The bodyguard wandered and Lincoln sat in his state box up in the balcony. Booth snuck up behind Lincoln and waited for a funny line in the play. He hoped that the laughter would drown out the sound of the gun. When the laughter started Booth went into the box and aimed. With a single shot fired at point-blank range. Major Henry Rathbone tried to fight with Booth but was cut by Booth’s knife. Booth then jumped onto the stage and shouted “Sic Sempe Tyrannis.” In Latin it means Thus always to tyrants. He then escaped. He had a broken leg from the jump off the balcony to the stage.It took twelve days to find him. He was cornered in a Virginia barn house. He was shot and died of his wounds shortly after.Lincoln was buried in Illinois.
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