Abraham Lincoln's Assassination Research Paper

L.B.
U.S. History 1 H 4B
11 April 2013
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
The sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated on April 14, 1865. This period of time in American history will forever be marked by his tragic death. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer at Ford’s Theater. Booth, along with Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt planned to bring chaos among the federal government and have the Confederacy step in to overthrow them (Boardman, 1865). His plan succeeded in the death of President Lincoln. However, his scheme to overthrow the government backfired. Lincoln was not viewed very well by the people before his assassination. However, due to Booth’s decision to murder Abraham Lincoln,
His assassination is looked upon not only as a significant event in the history of the United States, but also as completely changing the perspective of how the country, and the world, viewed, and would continue to view, Abraham Lincoln as a person and as a President (Hall, 1865). It is a fact that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln changed him from being known as a controversial President to a sacred symbol of his society. His assassination was only the beginning of this transformation. The amount of work and the attention that he received after his death on his funeral and the events that followed made him into even more of a hero than ever before. Many Americans had condemned Lincoln to being endlessly criticized of his wartime policies and reconstruction plans. This is why it was so much more interesting to see that many people acted so differently upon his death even though they felt completely different about the man and his presidency. It is important to take a look at how death and the ensuing funeral arrangements completely changed the way the nation viewed the man and how Lincoln’s image was forever changed in the eyes of the Americans then and beyond (Schwartz 1991,
The attitude of people towards Lincoln changed radically after his murder. It was an occasion when the whole nation was perhaps for the first time facing such a calamity where everyone had been forced to think about the changing political situation of the country. At the same time, Lincoln’s funeral rites and processions were done on such a large and grand scale of symbolism that people starting to look at him in a different light. Even though people did not like him and his policies, there was an element of sympathy and people automatically started to show their affection for their President who was murdered so brutally and so publically. Nothing like this had ever happened and people were forced to feel sorry for Lincoln because they had no idea what to think. Plus, when Lincoln was killed, the nation was already in a state of heightened emotions, and this allowed for an even increased impact of his death upon the people. America saw him change from being a much criticized president to one of the most influential and powerful of all the US Presidents. People began to talk of his vigorous methods in the field during his time as the commander in chief during the Civil Way. Even the opponents who believed that his policies were unconstitutional and unconventional started to think of him as a great leader to did his country