PEOPLE: Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy are examples of loyalty, dedication, and support for the Constitution
AGN.News Team
February 12, 2024
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), the 16th President of the United States was born on this day, February 12, 1809. He has been called, “The best president in all of America’s history.
America celebrates the life and legacy of the 16th President of the United States. Ending slavery and working towards equality for all was his life’s mission.
Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War, defending the nation as a constitutional union, defeating the insurgent Confederacy, abolishing slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.
Abraham Lincoln’s life’s mission
Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. congressman from Illinois.
His early life was a journey of struggles and successes. After losing his mother and sister due to health issues, Lincoln was determined to succeed in accomplishing something good for humanity, namely, the aspirations hinted on the Constitution, the equality of mankind. Lincoln, a lawyer, knew that in 1776, the U.S. was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”.
By age 19, Lincoln saw the effects of slavery firsthand on a trip to New Orleans to deliver cargo with his friend Allen Gentry. He saw its grip on part of the nation’s population.
On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, then twenty-eight years old, delivered his first major speech at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, after the murder of newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy in Alton.
Prior to that, on April 28, 1836, an innocent Black man, Francis McIntosh, was burned alive in St. Louis, Missouri. Zann Gill describes how these two murders set off a chain reaction that ultimately prompted Abraham Lincoln to run for President.
Today, some people, thinking 2024 comparison thoughts, may not understand what this president did for the country and especially African Americans. It wasn’t just freedom from slavery, it was the beginning of a new life where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness could flourish.
Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration
On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term. Standing on the steps of the U.S. Capital building in Washington, D.C., he took the oath of office. That oath included defending the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to abide by its values.
Standing on the steps a few rows above him was 26-year-old, John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln admired Booth for his acting talents, and the actor had been invited to the White House several times, without success. Lincoln had also watched Booth in a play in 1863 at Ford’s Theatre, the same location where Booth would later assassinate him.
As he watched Lincoln being sworn into office a second time, Booth’s thoughts were on assassinating the president. In his diary, Booth wrote “what an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the president on inauguration day!”
The conspiracy to kill Lincoln
According to some accounts, Booth traveled to Toronto, Ontario, Canada to meet with members of the Confederate Secret Service. He was reportedly given about $30,000 to carry out the plot to kill the president by Confederate agents.
Booth was motivated to kill Lincoln because Lincoln had publicly said he wanted to see freed slaves given the right to vote. Among other grievances, the idea of African Americans having the right to vote in the nations elections was too much to bear for a white supremacist.
At first, Booth wanted to kidnap Lincoln. That plot didn’t work out. So, their plan B was to assassinate Lincoln. This was a well-funded broader conspiracy motivated by Booth who wanted to revive the Confederate cause by assassinating Lincoln and the most important heads of the federal government.
The assassination of Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He died the next morning on April 15, 1865, Booth thus completed his role in the assassination of Lincoln. He along with David Herold (23) escaped into rural Northern Virginia.
They were on the run for 12 days. With the long arm of the law chasing them, they were tracked down sheltered in a barn. They set the barn on fire and David Herold surrendered. Booth cowering in a corner, was shot in the neck through a hole in the siding of the barn by Union soldier, Boston Corbett. Paralyzed by the bullet, Booth was pronounced graveyard dead shortly thereafter.
The fate of the conspirators
Joining him in this conspiracy was Lewis Powell (21), who was assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt (30) who was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson. These conspirators thought they had a perfect plan.
Lewis Powell (21), a former Confederate soldier, who was now a member of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland and joined Booth in the plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn him over to the Confederacy but then changed their mind and decided to assassinate Lincoln.
A woman joined the conspirators
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (42 or 45), owner of a boarding house in Washington D.C., was part of this conspiracy. She was tried, convicted, and hanged. How did she become the first woman put to death by the U.S. government?
Mary Surrat was a Confederate sympathizer and hosted other sympathizers in her tavern and rooming house in Maryland. Her son, John Surratt (21) who was tried but not convicted and went on to live to be 72 years old.
After her husband died, she moved to Washington and moved into a boardinghouse where she rented out rooms. There, she met Booth. He stayed there several times as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell.
Earlier that day, just before killing Lincoln, Booth gave Surratt a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, a former police officer, John M. Lloyd, who would later be arrested but not charged in the conspiracy. He later testified against Mary Surratt.
Other than Lincoln’s assassination, the plot failed. Seward was only wounded, and Johnson’s would-be assassin needed a few alcoholic drinks in a bar and got drunk before he could muster the nerves to carry out the assassination of Johnson.
Trial of conspirators and four executed
Anyone who came into contact with the conspirators or were associated with the conspirators were arrested. The owner of the Ford’s Theatre, John T. Ford as well as James Pumphrey, owner of stable where Booth rented a horse were arrested.
John M. Lloyd, the innkeeper who rented Mary Surratt’s Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14, 1865, and Samuel Cox and Thomas A. Jones, who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac.
All were eventually released except: Samuel Arnold, who was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor in Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas off South Florida, but pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869.
Also pardoned was David Arnold (23), pardoned, Dr Samuel Mudd (32) who set booth’s broken leg, pardoned, Michael O’Loughlin (27), a conspirator who died in prison and Lewis Powell (21) who was hanged
Edmund Spangler (40) a theater stagehand who had given Booth’s horse to Burroughs to hold was found not guilty of conspiracy but guilty of helping Booth escape and given six years in prison. He was pardoned in March 1869, George Atzerodt (30), hanged, and Mary Surratt was hanged.
They were put on trial for their crimes before a military tribunal ordered by President Johnson who had succeeded to the presidency upon Lincoln’s death. The tribunal consisted of six generals and three colonels. There was no right to an appeal, only President Johnson could hear an appeal of their sentence.
The tribunal sentenced four of the conspirators to death by hanging. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerolt. They were executed on July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington D.C.
Justice served in Lincoln’s death
Those involved in the conspiracy to assassinate the president included a medical doctor, a former police officer, former Confederate soldiers, Confederate sympathizers, business owners, and everyday Americans who got caught up in this conspiracy to overturn the United States government, kill its leaders, and replace it with a government of their choosing.
Lincoln warned that no trans-Atlantic military giant could ever crush the United States as a nation. “It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher”, said Lincoln.
Look at the reckless behavior of all of these brilliant people, many of them young and impressionable, an accomplished mother and business owner joining in with these traitors and conspirators who were attempting to bring down the country our nation-building Founding Fathers worked to build, fight for, and die for.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, would be proud of the many men and women who stand strong in the face of America’s enemies, foreign and domestic.
Lincoln’s legacy and life can be remembered for his accomplishments in life, in office, and his love of country. He wanted America to be a country where liberty and justice for all would prevail rather than division and confusion.
Lincoln’s life and legacy are examples of loyalty, dedication, and support for the Constitution and the rights it allows its citizens to enjoy. He ultimately gave his life for his country, our country, a country we all should be proud to be part of everyday.
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