Comrade | Guevara
Although the president of the United States is the most powerful and glorious position in the world, he is also a "high-risk job". Since independence, at least 5 presidents have been assassinated, including 4 deaths (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) and 1 "passing by" (Reagan). So why did John Wilkes Booth, the first king-killer, assassinate President Lincoln? How did he end up?
Booth
Booth, born in 1838 in Baltimore, Maryland, came from an acting family, and his father and two older brothers were famous actors. Influenced by the family atmosphere, Booth began to learn acting from an early age and officially took the stage at the age of 17. Booth's acting career began badly, and he was ridiculed by the audience for his exaggerated performance, but he was not discouraged, but humbly accepted criticism and constantly corrected, and his acting skills developed rapidly, and by the time he was in his early 20s, he had become a famous actor in the United States.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Maryland was an "outlier", a slave state but loyal to the federal government, and the state's citizens were mostly supporters of President Lincoln, as was the Booth family. Not only that, Booth's eldest brother Edwin was also a great benefactor of the Lincoln family. It turned out that Lincoln's eldest son, Robert, returned to Washington from Harvard University to visit his relatives, and when he bought a ticket at boston station, he was almost crushed to death by a train that suddenly started, but thanks to Edwin," who was beside him, he sacrificed his life to save his life.
Map of the political situation before the Civil War
However, unlike most of his family's political stance, Booth was a staunch slave advocate and hated President Lincoln's efforts to free black slaves and forcefully suppress southern rebels. According to people familiar with him, Booth lost control of his emotions and cursed as soon as he heard Lincoln's name, which showed his hatred for the president. Due to his very different political stances, Booth's relationship with his father, brother and friends deteriorated, which made his personality more obedient and aggressive.
Although Booth was a die-hard loyalist of the Confederacy, he did not join the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but acted as a spy for the latter, traveling around the United States under the cover of an actor, frequently contacting military and political officials to gather intelligence, and transporting much-needed medicines to the South. As a spy, Booth performed very well and was repeatedly praised by the commander of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee. However, Booth made great efforts, but failed to save the Confederacy from defeat.
General Lee surrendered to Grant
On April 9, 1865, the remnants of the Confederate Army, led by General Lee, were besieged by the Confederate Army and were forced to surrender to the commander of the Confederate Army, General Grant (later the 18th President of the United States), when the general situation was over. After General Lee surrendered, the Confederacy lost its last pillar and soon perished, ending in a northern victory. The outcome of the war left Booth bitter and resentful, and for several days he drank alcohol to dispel his sorrows, and gradually developed the idea of assassinating Lincoln.
Booth's attempt to murder Lincoln was not a temporary intention, but that he learned that the Confederate general Joseph Johnston still had 30,000 soldiers and horses at this time, and that if Lincoln died suddenly, the federal government would inevitably fall into chaos, and the Confederacy still had the hope of "reviving the dead". In order to ensure the realization of the overall goal, Booth decided to assassinate Lincoln, but also to eliminate Vice President Johnson, Secretary of War Stanton and Grant.
Lincoln was assassinated
On April 14, when Booth learned that Lincoln was taking his wife Mary to for a play at Ford's Theater that night, his intuition told him that the time had come to assassinate him. At about 10 p.m., Booth entered ford theater and took advantage of the audience's immersion in the plot and Lincoln's only guard who happened to be out drinking, sneaked into the president's box and then fired 6 shots at Lincoln in quick succession between the back of his head and his left ear, including 5 hits. Lincoln fell bitterly into his wife's arms and died the next morning at the age of 56.
After Lincoln fell in response, General Rossbo, who was watching the drama nearby, immediately stood up and rushed to Booth, but was slashed to the ground by the hunting knife in the opponent's hand. Amid Mary's screams, Booth leapt onto the stage 12 feet below and shouted, "This is where the tyrant ends!" The great vengeance of the South has been repaid! Booth then took the opportunity to escape in the chaos of the theater. After escaping washington, Booth fled to Maryland with his accomplice Herold, but only 11 days later, he was surrounded by pursuing troops in a warehouse on the banks of the Potomac River.
Statue of Lincoln
After Hrolld raised his hand to surrender, Booth remained stubborn, and after a period of stalemate, the army began to burn the barns in an attempt to force him out. Soon, the soldiers heard a crisp gunshot, and when they rushed into the warehouse, they found Booth lying in a pool of blood, muttering, "Tell mom, I died for my motherland," and then swallowed. In this way, as the first "king-killer" in American history, Booth finally ended his sinful life by suicide, at the age of 27.
Bibliography: The Complete Biography of the President of the United States.