"Enough lives have
been sacrificed; we must extinguish our resentments if we expect
harmony and union."
While Lincoln was thus arming himself with a valiant mercy, a
band of conspirators at an obscure boardinghouse in Washington
were planning his assassination. Their leader was John Wilkes
Booth, an actor, brother of the much abler Edwin Booth. There
seems little doubt that he was insane. Around him gathered a
small group of visionary extremists in whom much brooding upon
Southern wrongs had produced an unbalanced condition. Only a
morbid interest can attach today to the strange cunning with
which Booth laid his plans, thinking of himself all the while as
a reincarnation of the Roman Brutus.
On the night of the 14th of April, the President attended a
performance of "Our American Cousin". While the play was in
progress, Booth stole into the President's box, came close behind
him, and shot him through the head. Lincoln never spoke again
and, shortly after seven next morning, ceased breathing.
At the same time, a futile attempt was made upon the life of
Seward. Booth temporarily escaped. Later he was overtaken and
shot. His accomplices were hanged.
The passage of sixty years has proved fully necessary to the
placing of Lincoln in historic perspective.
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