The Lincoln Assassination - Free Essay in History

Abraham Lincoln who is a globally renowned leader was born on the 12th February of the year 1809. Lincoln was born in a very humble family which could not afford a decent house; they lived in a single room made of logs in the south of Hodgenville, in Hardin County, Kentucky. His family experienced more problems when they were forced to relocate to Knob Creek farm as a result of a land dispute. Lincolns father lost a big chunk of his land in Kentucky as a result of the land disputes which were later settled in court out of his favor. In the year 1819, the land of Abraham Lincolns family was assimilated by Spencer county Indiana; the Lincolns moved to Indiana and settled in Hurricane Township (Johnson 55). Abraham spent most of his youthful years from seven years old to twenty one years old on the family farm in southern Indiana. Lincoln received little education by his virtue of being a common frontier in the society. Lincoln was a dedicated chap and he continued learning on his own through life experiences, reading and practicing what he could hear from other learned people. Lincolns mother died in the year 1818 and his father married again, shortly after, Lincoln sister died. In the year 1830, Abraham Lincoln joined his extended family when they relocated to (Illinois Johnson 53). Lincoln helped his father to establish a firm in Macon County, and at the age of 21 he set out on a path of his own.

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Lincoln was a dreamer and an outstanding person from a tender age; he was a very strong and well built tall man. Like a majority of young men at 21 he set out to look for his destiny, he landed his first job as a clerk in a general store. Lincoln slowly began to build his reputation by wrestling the town bullies; he could comfortably split rails and fell trees easily. Lincoln was a man of firm principles and incorruptible integrity; he strived to build the world which would be in conformity with his character (Field 50). He had amassed a lot of strength during his childhood and teenage years as a farmer. The store being a central place in the town, Lincoln delighted the townsmen with his wit, integrity, and intelligence. His ability to read and write placed him at a higher and lucrative position in New Salem. After six months of settling in New Salem, Abraham let known his ambitions by drawing his hat for the seat in Illinois legislature with no allegiance to any political party (Field 49). A short while after Lincoln declared his interest in politics, a war between his town and Indians broke out and Lincoln decided to lend his new community a hand during that war. Lincolns engagement Black Hawk war deprived him of time to campaign for his bid but after the war, he resumed and lost the elections at the county level but garnered almost all votes in New Salem town.

After losing the elections, Lincoln decided to focus his energy on studying law. His prowess contributed to him being awarded a license to practice law in the year 1837 (Field 70).Lincoln actively participated in political functions and this brought the president's attention to Lincoln and he was selected to fill the position of postmaster in his town Salem. In the year 1834, Lincoln contested for the legislative seat and won, his strategy of just visiting families and sharing jokes and ideas with the people worked perfectly for him. In the year 1837, Lincoln took a controversial political direction by joining forces with other five politicians to oppose condemnation of abolitionists (Field 72). In 1838 Lincoln gave a very touching and statesmanlike speech protesting the murder of Elijah Parish who was an abolitionist in Illinois. Lincoln demonstrated that voters should use their votes to exercise their democracy but not violence. Lincoln served for four terms in the legislature then left politics for five years and later returned in 1846 and won the Whig nomination for the seat of Illinois congress district house representatives (Benedict 1360). Shortly after his nomination, America went to war with Mexico and Lincoln was very wise not to comment on the war a decision which ensured his political success after the war. Lincoln boldly criticized the president for waging war against Mexico a position which placed him in a death path politically. Clinton retired after his five-year stunt and decided to practice law from the year 1848 to 1854 where he threw his hat in the senate race and lost (Benedict 1365).

The defeat was followed by Lincoln decamping from Whig defunct party to the republican. The republican was made of former Whig party members who were opposed to slavery just like Lincoln. The new party lost the election to the democrats but won a big chunk of the county seats in America. Two years later, Lincoln won his partys nomination and was pitted to race against Stephen A Douglas who was a very powerful and resourceful senator. The two clashed sharply during the debates on the issue of slavery in the year 1858 (Yan et al. 1355). Lincoln launched his campaign with one of the biggest speech in America titled the house divided, which was delivered in Illinois spring field on June 16th, 1858 (Yan et al 1356). In the year 1860, Lincoln was endorsed for the presidency and he played his politics wisely never making binding promises and agreements with the electorates. Lincoln won the presidency and became the sixteenth president America on the sixth of November 1860. Lincoln garnered 1,866,452 votes against his fierce competitor Douglas who garnered 1,356,957 (Yan et al. 1356). Lincoln presidency resulted to disunity in the United States of America. Some states of America passed laws to become sovereign states from America on the 9th February of (1861 Schwartz 353). However, Lincoln declared the secession illegal. Lincolns dream was to have a nation which was focused on nationalistic economic policies and direction.

The states which had announced themselves sovereign went ahead and elected their provisional president Jefferson Davis. The states were Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas (Schwartz 360).The war between states went on until 1864, an election year. Lincoln won by a landslide as a result of his wit and experience in consolidating political support for his party which he fronted as the new union party. Lincolns army defeated northern Virginias confederate army which was under the command of Robert lee. Five days after the army surrendered, John Wilkes Booth a spy with the confederate army assassinated Abraham Lincoln on the fourteenth of April, which was a good Friday in the year 1865 (Douma et al. 320). Lincoln had gone to attend a drama presentation at the fords theater; concurrently the American civil war was starting to materialize. Booth who was a renowned actor and a confederate secret spy conspired with the confederate secret service to kill President Lincoln (Douma et al. 330). Initially, Booth had coordinated a plan to kidnap Abraham Lincoln in a bid to have leverage in the push for the liberation of prisoners from the southern states. Lincoln speech on 11th April 1865 in which he supported the enactment of constitutional rights for the blacks in America especially voting rights did not augur well with Booth who then resolved to kill Lincoln instead (Schwartz 347).

Booth struck Lincoln when Lincolns bodyguard had left for a drink, the president was left alone in the states balcony and Booth seized the moment and crept up behind Lincoln and shot him straight at the back of his head at around 10:13 pm (Douma et al. 341). Major Henry Rathbone who was near the president tried to capture Booth but he was overpowered and stabbed. Lincoln was pronounced dead after nine hours of staying in a comma. Booth was hunted down after 12 days on the run and he was gunned down after refusing to surrender (Schwartz 345). Vice president Johnson was sworn in shortly three hours after Lincolns death. African-Americans mourned the death of Lincoln and compared it to the death of their redeemer in that foreign land. Lincoln dream was to unite America but his untimely death was a huge blow to his dream and the reconstruction of America (Douma et al. 341). Lincoln wanted to foster a union through minimal punishment and cordial agreement between the southern states which were fronting the civil war in America. The reconstruction was flawed because of the hostility of radicals in the southern states who planned and impeached President Johnson who took over after Lincolns death. Lincolns demise manifested the extension of racial discrimination, segregation, and the fight for the same voting rights for all Americans whether black or white. His death resulted to a flawed reconstruction process which was dominated by individual political and selfish interests of the political elite during that time.

Works cited

Benedict, Michael Les. "Lincoln And Constitutional Politics." Marquette Law Review 93.4 (2010): 1333-1366. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Douma, Michael J., and Anders Bo Rasmussen. "The Danish St Croix Project: Revisiting The Lincoln Colonization Program With Foreign-Language Sources." American Nineteenth Century History 15.3 (2014): 311-342. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Field, Peter S. "Abraham Lincoln And The First-Person Plural: A Study In Language And Leadership." American Nineteenth Century History 12.1 (2011): 49-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Johnson, Benjamin. "Marianne Moore's "Abraham Lincoln And The Art Of The Word": Poetry, Celebrity, And Civil Religion." Texas Studies In Literature & Language 57.1 (2015): 53-79. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016

Schwartz, Barry. "Mourning And The Making Of A Sacred Symbol: Durkheim And The Lincoln Assassination." Social Forces 70.2 (1991): 343-364. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Yan, Sandra C., et al. "The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln And The Evolution Of Neuro-Trauma Care: Would The 16Th President Have Survived In The Modern Era?." World Neurosurgery 84.5 (2015): 1453-1457. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2016