The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The death of Abraham Lincoln was a sad one. Here he had worked so hard to end slavery, to help create a peaceful and just country, and his accomplishments end with a bullet. The citizens of the United States were sad and angry. Was the entire civil war a waste? Did the men and boys of our country die in vain?

Above: a very sad child, similar to the children who

lived in Civil War times, who had lost family from war.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a small log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were uneducated farmers, and did not expect their son to become the future President of the United States. He was mainly a self-taught student, and slowly made his way up the ladder.

He was the Republican nominee for the 1860 election. He received 40% of the American vote. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States.

On April 14, 1865, Abraham and his wife, Mary Todd, went to the Ford's Theater to see a play called Our American Cousin. Little did he know that Our American Cousin would be the last play he would see. Then, during the 3rd act of the play, a man named John Wilkes Booth shot the President.

Above: The playbill for Our American Cousin.

Above: a drawing of Ford's theater, the location of the assassination.

Above: An interpretation of Lincoln's assassination.

The entire assassination was carefully planned out. The man waited for the funniest part of the play to make his move, hoping that the laughter would conceal sound of the gunshot. Unfortunately, Lincoln was sitting in a balcony, so escape would have been difficult. After killing Mr. Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth leaped onto the stage and bellowed, "Sic semper tyrannis!" This translates to "Thus always to tyrants!" in Latin. I believe he chose this phrase because it was the same one yelled at the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Above: John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

Lincoln was quickly taken to the house of a man named Henry Safford, who lived close to the theater. He had to lay on the bed diagonally, because he was too tall for the bed. He was pronounced dead at 7:22:10 (am) on April 15, 1865.

It is also thought that Lincoln's health was never great. He was taking medication for his clinical depression, called Blue Mass. This medication contained very unhealthy portions of mercury. We are pretty sure that Lincoln suffered from mercury poisoning. He was also abnormally tall, six feet, four inches. (This isn't considered abnormal in our time, but in Lincoln's time, the average size for men was five feet six inches.) It is also very likely that he had spinocerebellar ataxia type 5, which is a gene mutation.

Mona's Artist Statement

Lincoln's assassination is a very important piece of our history, and I have really enjoyed uncovering bits and pieces of it. Lincoln was very special to our country because he was:

First president to be assassinated

Reelected during the civil war

Tallest president

And, best of all, he demolished slavery and turned our country into a united, just, and happier America. His assassination was a test to see if our nation could sustain the peace between the North and South, and between blacks and whites.

Learning about this assassination taught me about human ethics and human capability. The fact that John Wilkes Booth could kill Lincoln because he didn't share the same beliefs tells me that he was a very unethical man, and it seems to me that anyone who had such hatred as John Wilkes Booth could be capable of many things. I think that if everyone in this world were peaceful we wouldn't have as many deaths.

If you look at our quilt square, you'll see one thing that will catch your eye: Lincoln's face, turned into a puzzle, with some pieces missing and scattered about. This represents the chaos and commotion that this nation underwent when they discovered their president had died. In the background is the scene directly after John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, which is in detail, and is a subtle but important aspect of our quilt piece. Around the edges are some pictures of the things Lincoln had in his pockets when he died, which is pretty interesting. What would you put in your pockets if you knew you were going to die? Also is a picture of Booth, and his two accomplices. In the right-hand corner of the square is a picture of a sign telling of the large award given to anyone who found Booth, which was a large amount of money for the time, but the cost of Abraham Lincoln's life is priceless, and nothing can ever make up for that fact.


Sydney's artist statement

   During the times of devastation, sorrow, and misfortune. America
looked up to one of the greatest men of all time. He was the president
of the united states, Abraham Lincoln, and it was depended upon him
and many other Abolitionists to end the war and ensure that slavery
was never again thought of in the united states. I would like to tell
you that he ended the war triumphantly, and that peace among men,
women, and children of all races was established. But I simply can
not. For on April 15, 1865, just months after the civil war came to a
cease, the hopes of more than half of the united states were crushed
with the sickening sound of a gun shot and the tear filed screams of
Mary Todd Lincoln calling for a doctor. Their hopes were dashed with
the death of Abraham Lincoln.
   Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15 1865 while
attending a play at fords theatre. The quilt piece represents the
breaking apart of dreams and hopes, along with the ideas and proposals
that Lincoln had made during the coarse of his life. The scene in the
back round is if his assassination and the assassin, john Wilkes
booth. Around the borders are adds from posters, asking for the
assassin with a reward of 100,000 or less. There are also pictures of
the contents that were in Lincoln's pockets durring the time that he
died.
   Abraham Lincoln was someone who was expected to pull the nation
out of the hole it had been digging itself into by harboring slavery
for so long. But in the midst of our celebrating the end if the war
the hope of that escape dissolved when Lincoln died, sending the
country into deep despair faster than ever before.