Emery Coggeshall
US History 1 CP
April 15, 2016
Research Paper
De Tocqueville 's Principles in the First Presidential Assassination
The Assassination of the 16th president in the United States is still a big part of history and what history stands for. The assassination was the first presidential assassination in history. The assassination was on April 14, 1865 and took place in Ford 's Theater. With the bullet going through Lincoln 's head he was due to die in the morning. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln and managed to escape but was found and killed almost fourteen days later. The assassination was over two groups different beliefs on Alexis de Tocqueville principles. The values that the USA stands for were being tested. When it came to
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John Wilkes Booth was opposed to this and took it out on assassinating the President. Booth 's actions went against the true meaning of liberty and individualism all because the belief that he wasn 't being heard in the democracy.
One of De Tocqueville principles was individualism. This principle is the belief that the needs of each person are more important than the needs of the whole society or group. Abraham Lincoln was a strong believer in people 's individual freedom no matter the race, and with the start of the civil war he decided to take action. In 1863 Lincoln delivered one of his famous speeches; the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation added to the effects with the civil war because with the speech “the aim of the war changed to include the freeing of slaves in addition to preserving the Union. Although the Proclamation initially freed only the slaves in the rebellious states, by the end of the war the Proclamation had influenced and prepared citizens to advocate and accept abolition for all slaves in both the North and South.” The
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John Wilkes Booth had a different point of view on what individualism ment. He still believed that individualism was the belief that the needs of each person are more important than the needs of the whole society or group, but he thought that meant he could act violently when his voice was being neglected. John Wilkes Booth grew up in the South and when slavery became the topic of discussion in the government he took the south side and