The End of Suffering (Or was it?)
One week after the Civil War ended, on April 15, 1865, the first presidential assassination took place when Abraham Lincoln “gave up the ghost,” or as Secretary of War Seward said, “He now belongs to the ages.” While attending a play on Good Friday entitled “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Threatre in Washington D.C. with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, the president was shot point blank in the back of the head by Southern sympathizer and famous actor John Wilkes Booth.
Booth jumped from the presidential balcony, hollered, “Sic semper tyrannis,” which means “Thus always to tyrants” in Latin. He managed to escape with a broken leg, but was nabbed several days later, shot inside a burning barn. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s funeral train was making the rounds across the country on its final destination to Illinois, his home state.
It was discovered after his death that he had a Confederate five dollar bill in his wallet. For his second inauguration, he requested that the song “Dixie” be played. It was his utmost belief to keep the Confederacy in the Union and maintain a unified country at all costs. Ultimately, he paid the price with his own life.
