Term paper on John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth Essays
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John Wilkes Booth was born May 10th, 1838 in Hartford, Maryland. He was the 9th of 10 children of Junius Booth and Mary Ann Holmes. Junius was one of the most famous actors on the American stage (Kimmel, p.33) Junius was eccentric and had many problems with alcohol. John Wilkes Booth attended several private schools, including a boarding school operated by Quakers. He then went on to attend St. Timothy s Hall and Episcopal Military Academy in Maryland. During the 1850 s young Booth became part of the Know-Nothing party in politics (Kimmel, p.55). The Know-Nothing party was formed by American natives who wanted to preserve the country for native-born whites. After his father s death, Booth wanted to be a famous actor like him. When he was 17 years old, Booth made his stage debut in Richard III. Forgetting his lines and cues, the critics ridiculed him. Booth was so upset that two years passed before he returned to the stage (Samples, p.42). In 1857 Booth played Stock in Philadelphia, then later became a member of the Richmond Theater. As his career took off, many people called him the handsomest man in America. He stood 5-8, with jet-black hair, ivory skin, and was lean and athletic. He had an easy charm about him that attracted women. (Stern p.68) Soon Booth was earning around $20,000 a year. He was hailed as the youngest tragedian in the world. (Stern, p.69) For the next several years, Booth starred in Romeo and Juliet, The Apostate, The Marble Heart, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Macbeth.
In 1863, President Lincoln saw Booth in the role of Rapheal in the Marble Heart at Fords Theater in the exact same box that he would later be killed in. Booth became extremely interested in politics and was very opinionated. Booth was secretly a spy for the south and joined their Rebel Underground in the winter of 1863. (Kimmel, p.68) He smuggled bandages and medicine to the southern troops. John blamed the country s problems on the president; he hated Lincoln and everything he stood for. (Stern, p.96)
In the late summer of 1864, Booth began making plans to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln. The president would be captured, taken to Richmond, and held in exchange for confederate soldiers in Union prison camps. This would be a way to strengthen the confederate s weakening armies. (Wilson, p.85) Booth recruited a gang of conspirators. Within three months, he had Michael O Laughlin, Samuel Arnold, John Suratt, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and the immensely strong Lewis Powell alias Lewis Paine. The conspirators would meet at John Suratt s mother Mary Suratt s tavern. Daniel Gleason, who was a discharged army officer, was a clerk at the war department and friends with one of Mary Suratt s boarders, Lewis Weichmann. One day Weichmann told Gleason that he had found an arsenal of guns and knives at the tavern and asked Suratt about it. Suratt told Weichmann that Booth and the others were planning to kidnap the President on Inauguration Day. Gleason and Weichmann found the situation to be serious and decided that the best thing to do would be to tell Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Gleason states that he arranged through his roommate the assistant provost marshal to General Augur the Washington Commander to inform Stanton of the plot. (Hanchett, p.196-197) Secretary Stanton did not take much action into investigating the conspiracy at the Suratt tavern but did increase the guard on Lincoln. No effort was made to arrest the conspirators.
Booth learned that Lincoln would be attending a play at the Campbell Hospital just outside of Washington. This seemed to Booth a good time to kidnap Lincoln. However, at the last minute, Booth learned that the president changed his mind and decided to speak to the 140th Indiana Regiment instead. After this plan fell through, some of the conspirators began to leave Booth. (Wilson, p.120) One of the reasons that Suratt and the others left was because they felt the war was over and that kidnapping Lincoln would do no good.
On April 9th, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox. On April 11th, the President gave his last speech from the White House. Booth, Powell, and Herald were in the audience. Lincoln suggested possible new rights for the blacks, such as the right to vote. Booth became enraged! He said, Now, by God! I ll put him through, that is the last speech he ll ever make. (Stern, p.102) From then on Booth changed the plan from kidnapping to murder. Three days later Booth stopped at Fords Theater to pick up his mail. While there, he heard of Lincoln s plans to attend the night show of Our American Cousin. Booth met with his conspirators one last time and decided that that would be the night to assassinate the president. Powell would assassinate Secretary Seward, Atzerodt would shoot Vice-president Johnson, and Booth would kill Lincoln. All attacks would take place at 10:15 PM. From there they would meet up at the Navy Yard Bridge.
It is said, that upon his arrival at Fords Theater, a customer told Booth that he ll never be the actor his father was. Booth replied, when I leave the stage, I will be the most famous man in America (Bishop p.96)
Booth walked up the steps to the Presidents Box. Nobody questioned him because he was a regular at the theater and was always walking around. During a funny moment in the play, while the crowd was laughing, Booth crept up behind Lincoln and shot him in the back of the head at point blank range. Major Henry Rathbone, who was accompanying President Lincoln and his wife, began to wrestle Booth. Booth pulled out a knife and stabbed Rathbone in the arm. After the struggle, Booth leapt to the stage, which was approxemently 11 feet below the box, and broke his leg in the process. Waving his knife in the air, people thought they heard him yell Sic Semper Tyrannis which is Latin for Thus be it ever to tyrants. He went through the back door, jumped on his horse, and escaped.
When Booth rode to the Navy Yard Bridge a guard, by the name of Silas Cobb, stopped him. Cobb told Booth that no one was allowed to pass after 9:00. Being 10:30, Booth told Cobb that he had business in the city and was unaware of the rule. Cobb believed he was just an innocent businessman and had lost track of time so let him pass. While all of this happened, Secretary of War Stanton ordered all routes out of Washington closed. All of the routes were blocked except for the Navy Yard Bridge, the most logical route Booth would take.
Booth met up with Herald 11 miles south of Fords Theater and arrived at Mary Surratt s tavern. There they picked up guns and alcohol to ease the pain of Booth s leg. At that time, Booth did not know that Powell only injured, and did not kill Seward, while Atzerodt had made no attempt at all to kill Johnson. Booth needed medical attention to his leg so they went to Dr. Samuel Mudd for help. Mudd set Booth s leg at his house.
Booth and Herald rode along the Zekiah Swamp. Soon they came upon...
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