May 6, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the Civil War was over, the city of Washington was in celebration and President Lincoln's life was about to take a happy and hopeful turn. His short, happy life was thwarted by John Wilkes Booth.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories up next, The short,
happy life of Abraham Lincoln his final days. By all accounts,
good Friday, just two days before Easter on April fourteenth,
eighteen sixty five, was the happiest day the President Abraham
(00:30):
Lincoln's life. It had most certainly been the happiest few
weeks of his life, according to James Swanson, author of
the New York Times bestseller Manhunt, the twelve Day Chase
for Lincoln's killer. Here is what Swanson wrote. Lincoln had
won the war. Richmond fell on April third, Lee surrendered
(00:53):
on April ninth, and Lincoln gave his final speech from
the White House grounds the evening of April eleven, the
night before the night Lincoln was shot by his assassin.
Local newspapers reported it being the most beautiful night in
the history of Washington, as the city celebrated the ending
of the bloodiest and costliest war ever fought on American soil. Fireworks, flares,
(01:19):
and other sources of every imaginable variety illuminated the evening
sky again. James Swanson, one of the papers, said that
the Capital Dome was so beautiful that night that it
looked like a second moon had descended upon the earth
as a sign of God's favor for the Union and
(01:40):
for the victory. The very next morning, an idyllic spring
morning on April fourteen, Lincoln met his son, who'd been
working for General George Meade, and then he met with
his cabinet. A rare visitor joined that last meeting Lincoln
would ever hold with his staff, none other than the
(02:00):
General Ulysses S. Grant. They discussed affairs of state, and
things ended with Lincoln sharing a dream he'd had the
night before. In it, he was at the head of
a mysterious vessel moving towards a distant shore. He was alone.
Lincoln added that whenever he had that dream, and he'd
(02:20):
had it many times before during the war, something of
critical importance transpired. I'm convinced something of major significance is
about to happen, Lincoln told his men. When the meeting ended,
he and his bride, Mary, took a carriage ride to
enjoy the open air and talk about matters of the heart.
(02:44):
Here again is James Swanson. During that ride, Lincoln told
her he knew they'd been very unhappy ever since the
death of their eleven year old son Willie in the
White House in eighteen sixty two. The death count in
the Civil War over six hundred thousand, had taken its
toll on Lincoln too. It had been a crushing burden
(03:07):
on him, and the two of them had grown apart
during the war for so many reasons. He told Mary,
we must be happy again. Mary even wrote a note
later that day about her husband's rejuvenated spirit. You alarm me,
she said, because I have never seen you this happy
since just before the death of our child. Just two
(03:31):
days before Easter, the day Christians around the world celebrate
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Lincoln had experienced a resurrection
of his own. That night, he and Mary attended Our
American Cousin, a popular comedy of the day by British
playwright Tom Taylor. The couple arrived at Ford's Theater thirty
(03:52):
minutes late, and the play was stopped immediately as the
band rose and played Hail to the Chief went wild.
They were celebrating their great leader. They were also celebrating
the end of a terrible war. They too had borne
the heavy burden of the greatest conflict on American soil.
(04:14):
They too had the feeling of being reborn. That moment
may well have been the happiest of Lincoln's life. On
the day that marked a new and happy beginning to
Lincoln's life and the nation's John Wilkes, Booth was plotting
to make it the president's last Here's James Swanson on Booth.
(04:37):
The twenty six year old was one of the most
popular actors in America. Exceedingly handsome and athletic. Women and
men would stop in the street to watch him as
he passed. Generous, vain, funny, egomaniacal, politically motivated to be
a lover of the South, and a supporter of slavery
who once said slavery is the best thing that ever
(05:01):
happened to the black man. On the day Lincoln gave
his last speech from the White House, Crowns Both was present,
seated not far from him. When Lincoln spoke to the
adoring crowd about giving blacks the right to vote, Booth
turned to a Confederate sympathizer he knew well and said,
(05:22):
that's the last speech he'll ever give. It turns out
Booth had considered killing Lincoln before. At the president's second
inaugural address, he sat a mere fifty feet from the
man he hated. Here's James Swanson getting drunk at a bar.
Shortly after that, Booth pounded his fist on the table
(05:44):
and said to a friend, what an excellent chance I
had to kill the President on inauguration day. He was
almost as close to me as you are now. Then
came the catalyst that drove Booth into action. While visiting
Ford's Theater midday to pick up his mail, a woman
(06:05):
told the actor that Lincoln was attending the play that night. That,
according to James Swanson, set off the imaginary clock counting
down in Booth's head. What motivated one of the leading
actors of his day to do such a thing? Again,
James Swanson, Lincoln was an American caesar. To Booth, he
(06:28):
wanted to punish Lincoln the tyrant. He hoped to change history,
and of course he wanted eternal fame. He had it
in his lifetime. But Booth wanted to be immortalized as
a Southerner and ultimately an American patriot. The rest of
the story, what Herman Melville called that bloody, awful night,
(06:51):
is embedded in the American memory. The details of the assassination,
notwithstanding What Booth did that night was what James Swanson
called a new art form performance assassination. Wuth wasn't on
a suicide mission. He had an actual escape plan. What
(07:12):
he really wanted, Swanson noted, was to be seen and celebrated. Again.
Here's James Swanson when he crept to the President's box
and shot Lincoln and jumped to the stage of Ford's theater.
Wuth wasn't wearing a disguise, He hadn't shaved his mustache.
He did nothing to conceal himself when he turned to
(07:34):
the audience and faced them and cried out the state
motto of Virginia. That motto, sick semper tyrannus, is a
Latin phrase meaning thus always to tyrants. Those words were
followed by the last words Booth ever uttered on an
American stage, the South is avenged. As he left the stage,
(08:00):
resalted to himself, and only few people heard it, I
have done it. Booth then escaped to the back of
the theater, jumped on his waiting horse, and rode off
into the night. The largest man hunting American history ensued.
Booth was found twelve days later outside of Port Royal, Virginia,
(08:21):
trapped in a tobacco barn, the cavalry set the building
on fire to force him out. When he reached for
his rifle and headed for the door, Sergeant Boston Corbett
pulled his pistol and fired only once, striking Booth in
the neck and severing his spine. He would die within hours,
(08:41):
a slow, miserable death. Back at Ford's Theater on Good Friday,
America's beloved president lay dying in his box. He was
attended by three doctors, who had concluded quickly that the
wound was mortal and that the theater was simply not
an appropriate place for a man like him to die.
(09:03):
So those men carried him from his box, down the
stairs and into the street, looking for a place to
make the President of the United States as comfortable as
he possibly could be in the few hours of life
he had left to live. A person staying at the
Peterson House, just across the street from Ford's Theater, was
(09:25):
quick to help. The doctors rushed Lincoln in and took
him directly to the back of the bedroom, where he
died the next morning, on April fifteenth. As he died
that night, a light, cold rain began to fall over Washington.
It was as if the very heavens wept at the
(09:45):
loss of our beloved President. Thus ended the short happy
life of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln. The opening stanza
of Walt whitman epic poem, when Lilacs last in the
dooryard bloomed, captured the nation's grief in Way's mere prose
(10:08):
could not when lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed, and
the great star early drooped in the western sky in
the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever
returning spring, ever returning Spring. Trinity. Sure to me you
(10:29):
bring lilac blooming, perennial and drooping star in the west,
and thought of him. I love the short happy life
of President Abraham Lincoln, his final days here on our
American stories.
And we continue with our American stories up next, The short,
happy life of Abraham Lincoln his final days. By all accounts,
good Friday, just two days before Easter on April fourteenth,
eighteen sixty five, was the happiest day the President Abraham
(00:30):
Lincoln's life. It had most certainly been the happiest few
weeks of his life, according to James Swanson, author of
the New York Times bestseller Manhunt, the twelve Day Chase
for Lincoln's killer. Here is what Swanson wrote. Lincoln had
won the war. Richmond fell on April third, Lee surrendered
(00:53):
on April ninth, and Lincoln gave his final speech from
the White House grounds the evening of April eleven, the
night before the night Lincoln was shot by his assassin.
Local newspapers reported it being the most beautiful night in
the history of Washington, as the city celebrated the ending
of the bloodiest and costliest war ever fought on American soil. Fireworks, flares,
(01:19):
and other sources of every imaginable variety illuminated the evening
sky again. James Swanson, one of the papers, said that
the Capital Dome was so beautiful that night that it
looked like a second moon had descended upon the earth
as a sign of God's favor for the Union and
(01:40):
for the victory. The very next morning, an idyllic spring
morning on April fourteen, Lincoln met his son, who'd been
working for General George Meade, and then he met with
his cabinet. A rare visitor joined that last meeting Lincoln
would ever hold with his staff, none other than the
(02:00):
General Ulysses S. Grant. They discussed affairs of state, and
things ended with Lincoln sharing a dream he'd had the
night before. In it, he was at the head of
a mysterious vessel moving towards a distant shore. He was alone.
Lincoln added that whenever he had that dream, and he'd
(02:20):
had it many times before during the war, something of
critical importance transpired. I'm convinced something of major significance is
about to happen, Lincoln told his men. When the meeting ended,
he and his bride, Mary, took a carriage ride to
enjoy the open air and talk about matters of the heart.
(02:44):
Here again is James Swanson. During that ride, Lincoln told
her he knew they'd been very unhappy ever since the
death of their eleven year old son Willie in the
White House in eighteen sixty two. The death count in
the Civil War over six hundred thousand, had taken its
toll on Lincoln too. It had been a crushing burden
(03:07):
on him, and the two of them had grown apart
during the war for so many reasons. He told Mary,
we must be happy again. Mary even wrote a note
later that day about her husband's rejuvenated spirit. You alarm me,
she said, because I have never seen you this happy
since just before the death of our child. Just two
(03:31):
days before Easter, the day Christians around the world celebrate
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Lincoln had experienced a resurrection
of his own. That night, he and Mary attended Our
American Cousin, a popular comedy of the day by British
playwright Tom Taylor. The couple arrived at Ford's Theater thirty
(03:52):
minutes late, and the play was stopped immediately as the
band rose and played Hail to the Chief went wild.
They were celebrating their great leader. They were also celebrating
the end of a terrible war. They too had borne
the heavy burden of the greatest conflict on American soil.
(04:14):
They too had the feeling of being reborn. That moment
may well have been the happiest of Lincoln's life. On
the day that marked a new and happy beginning to
Lincoln's life and the nation's John Wilkes, Booth was plotting
to make it the president's last Here's James Swanson on Booth.
(04:37):
The twenty six year old was one of the most
popular actors in America. Exceedingly handsome and athletic. Women and
men would stop in the street to watch him as
he passed. Generous, vain, funny, egomaniacal, politically motivated to be
a lover of the South, and a supporter of slavery
who once said slavery is the best thing that ever
(05:01):
happened to the black man. On the day Lincoln gave
his last speech from the White House, Crowns Both was present,
seated not far from him. When Lincoln spoke to the
adoring crowd about giving blacks the right to vote, Booth
turned to a Confederate sympathizer he knew well and said,
(05:22):
that's the last speech he'll ever give. It turns out
Booth had considered killing Lincoln before. At the president's second
inaugural address, he sat a mere fifty feet from the
man he hated. Here's James Swanson getting drunk at a bar.
Shortly after that, Booth pounded his fist on the table
(05:44):
and said to a friend, what an excellent chance I
had to kill the President on inauguration day. He was
almost as close to me as you are now. Then
came the catalyst that drove Booth into action. While visiting
Ford's Theater midday to pick up his mail, a woman
(06:05):
told the actor that Lincoln was attending the play that night. That,
according to James Swanson, set off the imaginary clock counting
down in Booth's head. What motivated one of the leading
actors of his day to do such a thing? Again,
James Swanson, Lincoln was an American caesar. To Booth, he
(06:28):
wanted to punish Lincoln the tyrant. He hoped to change history,
and of course he wanted eternal fame. He had it
in his lifetime. But Booth wanted to be immortalized as
a Southerner and ultimately an American patriot. The rest of
the story, what Herman Melville called that bloody, awful night,
(06:51):
is embedded in the American memory. The details of the assassination,
notwithstanding What Booth did that night was what James Swanson
called a new art form performance assassination. Wuth wasn't on
a suicide mission. He had an actual escape plan. What
(07:12):
he really wanted, Swanson noted, was to be seen and celebrated. Again.
Here's James Swanson when he crept to the President's box
and shot Lincoln and jumped to the stage of Ford's theater.
Wuth wasn't wearing a disguise, He hadn't shaved his mustache.
He did nothing to conceal himself when he turned to
(07:34):
the audience and faced them and cried out the state
motto of Virginia. That motto, sick semper tyrannus, is a
Latin phrase meaning thus always to tyrants. Those words were
followed by the last words Booth ever uttered on an
American stage, the South is avenged. As he left the stage,
(08:00):
resalted to himself, and only few people heard it, I
have done it. Booth then escaped to the back of
the theater, jumped on his waiting horse, and rode off
into the night. The largest man hunting American history ensued.
Booth was found twelve days later outside of Port Royal, Virginia,
(08:21):
trapped in a tobacco barn, the cavalry set the building
on fire to force him out. When he reached for
his rifle and headed for the door, Sergeant Boston Corbett
pulled his pistol and fired only once, striking Booth in
the neck and severing his spine. He would die within hours,
(08:41):
a slow, miserable death. Back at Ford's Theater on Good Friday,
America's beloved president lay dying in his box. He was
attended by three doctors, who had concluded quickly that the
wound was mortal and that the theater was simply not
an appropriate place for a man like him to die.
(09:03):
So those men carried him from his box, down the
stairs and into the street, looking for a place to
make the President of the United States as comfortable as
he possibly could be in the few hours of life
he had left to live. A person staying at the
Peterson House, just across the street from Ford's Theater, was
(09:25):
quick to help. The doctors rushed Lincoln in and took
him directly to the back of the bedroom, where he
died the next morning, on April fifteenth. As he died
that night, a light, cold rain began to fall over Washington.
It was as if the very heavens wept at the
(09:45):
loss of our beloved President. Thus ended the short happy
life of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln. The opening stanza
of Walt whitman epic poem, when Lilacs last in the
dooryard bloomed, captured the nation's grief in Way's mere prose
(10:08):
could not when lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed, and
the great star early drooped in the western sky in
the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever
returning spring, ever returning Spring. Trinity. Sure to me you
(10:29):
bring lilac blooming, perennial and drooping star in the west,
and thought of him. I love the short happy life
of President Abraham Lincoln, his final days here on our
American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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