How Did George Atzerodt Deserve Lincoln's Assassination

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” Martin Luther Kink Jr. once said. This applies to the Civil War especially. The three works, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson, Killing Lincoln produced by National Geographic, and the excerpt from The Plot to Kill Lincoln by Karen Zeinhert all use the imagery of light and darkness when talking about Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and the Civil War in general, though they do not all elaborate on all of the conspirators involved.

The book that I decided to read for my quarter book report was Manhunt, The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson. I chose this book because I thought it would be interesting to learn about how they actually tracked down Abraham Lincoln’s killer after he was assassinated. Manhunt went into a lot of detail about how Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth, was found.

Five days after the Confederacy’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth had successfully killed one of the most influential presidents in American history to do what he believed would redeem power to the southern states. Booth’s main goal was to tear down the Union’s government by taking down their leader and his successors, but the original plan did not involve the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Historian Christopher Hammer explained in his article "Booth's Reason for Assassination", the former actor had created a group of co conspirators and designed "a ploy on March 17 to capture Lincoln as he traveled in his carriage [and had] collapsed when the president changed his itinerary—and several of Booth’s conspirators ultimately left the group.” (Teaching History). Since the failed capture of the president, Booth hatred towards Lincoln grew after hearing the president’s goal to officially abolish slavery in his Second Presidential

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a past United States of America president. The introduction of the book is how John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s killer, and his accomplices, made a plan to kidnap the American president, but their plan failed. So, John Wilkes Booth and his little gang decide to kill the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State in one night. John Wilkes Booth would kill the president at Ford’s theater, His accomplice George Atzerodt would kill the Vice President at the Vice President’s hotel room. Lewis Powell and David Herold would kill the Secretary of State.

Chapter 1 of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson is about the assassination plan of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. This assassination plan had strengths and weaknesses. John Wilkes Booth was a twenty-six year old actor who was a strong, loyal, and passionate confederate. Booth and his conspirators had a mission to take down some of the top leaders of the United States of America - the President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and U.S Secretary of State William Seward. In assessing this plan, which is similar to any other assassination plan, it includes good and bad situations with conspirators, location/time, and also weapons.

The President was assassinated in Springfield Illinois, so his body had to be transported, via train back to Washington DC, where his funeral would take place. According to Edward Steers Jr, the author of Blood on the Moon, a biography and explanation of Lincolns assassination, that on route to Washington D.C. “the train traveled 1,664 miles and made scheduled funeral stops in eleven cities” (Steers 278). The funeral procession was one like nobody had ever seen before. Steers gathers that “all along the sixteen-hundred-mile journey thousands upon thousands of citizens turned out and stood or sat in their buggies and wagons waiting for the train” (Steers 278). The people of the US showed up in massive crowds just to watch the train transporting Lincolns body, and pay their respects to a man that they all looked up to. At the New York stop, over 500,000 people waited in line to get a glimpse of their murdered president (Steers 283). It was obvious that the American citizens respected Abraham Lincoln.

Late on a April night in 1865, the unthinkable became true. America’s president had been assassinated. In 1865, a lot changed for Americans who were in love with their president after president Lincoln was shot. There are many conspiracy theories questioning who was involved, for what reasons, and the bigger reason the assassination was planed. The fate of those responsible will also be examined.

Many people have different conspiracies on who killed and how they killed the president of their time, John F. Kennedy. Some think that it was one guy named Oswald, some believe that it was the mobs, people also think it was the government. No one has exact proof of what happened that day or who killed him, but here is my conspiracy based off of facts that I have gathered and if I think that it was only Oswald that was in on it.

Meriwether Lewis had people that were jealous of his success and position as governor of Louisiana Territory. He was traveling to Washington to resolve unpaid bills from his governorship and to publish his famous journals. Meriwether’s partner was William Clark. There was also a rumor that he had secret documents that may have implicated others in treason. Meriwether Lewis died at the Grinder’s stand at the age of 35. This question of the cause of his death has been asked for aver 200 years, but it is clear that this is murder by conspiracy.

The most notoriously infamous assassination in the history of America happened in April on the fourteenth day, in the year of 1865, which was also on a Good Friday. President Lincoln was shot and killed with a derringer by John Wilkes Booth. Booth came from one of the most well-known acting families in America at the time. He was an excellent actor, tall and good looking man who was very much into and apart of southern independence. He hated the black people and looked at Lincoln as dictator. Booth murdered Lincoln after many attempts to kidnap him went sour.

I Think this because there were multiple shooters and I don't think it was just him. Oswald might have been pushed to do it by the government or like the Russian government because J.F.K knew something and didn't want j.fk to tell. What I mean by pushed is he was forced like getting a bribe or getting threatened. The shots that were fired were too fast to just be one person because the bolt action rifle that was supposedly used couldn’t fire that fast even professional shooters that we tested couldn't do that and the shots that were fired came out in less than 10 seconds. The text says that there was also a police killing the same day too but the two eyewitness descriptions were

Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln were similar in a lot of ways. Both were very famous political figures known for dealing with civil wars amongst their countries. They also both supported the common people and wanted to advance their countries to be more modern. Caesar updated the Roman Calendar and contributed to many reforms that helped the common people of his empire. Lincoln was a supporter of stopping the expansion of slavery which won him the popularity of the northern states. Similarly, the two politicians had supporters of their cause and people who went against them and strongly opposed the changes they made to the political systems of their individual countries. Another way the two were similar is that they were both assassinated

There are many different books that tell the story of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. One such book is Killing Lincoln, written by Bill O’Reilly. This book is not only about the assassination of President Lincoln, but it’s about the end of the Civil War too. O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln has many strengths and weaknesses, overall, it’s a good book.

Many of America's leaders were assassinated such as John F. Kennedy and MLK. The motives to their assassinations were most from disagreements which is the same motive for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On April 14th 1865, John Wilkes, shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at a play at ford Theatre . John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland and was born in 1838. He lived in the north during the civil War but but yet he still didn’t agree with Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's assassination was not justified because he freed slaves and he was a great leader.

“John” notes that Booth’s family was a renowned acting dynasty at the time of the Civil War. Booth himself was an ardent supporter of slavery with a burning hatred for Abraham Lincoln (Britannica.com). “Assassination,” suggests that Booth’s hatred of Lincoln may have been caused in part Lincoln’s undemocratic practices. The President deemed censorship of speeches and newspapers necessary during the Civil War. Additionally, the President was able to suspend any writ of habeas corpus, which prevented trials from taking place (2009). Booth himself wrote about Lincoln in a negative manner. “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment” (Booth, April 13-14, 1865). This quote proves that Booth saw the assassination of Lincoln as both patriotic and