This conspiracy was put up as part of our site's one year anniversary. I accidently put up another article relating to Lincoln's assasssination, but I've fixed it. To view the one year anniversary statement I put up explaining the three conspiracies I put up for our anniversary, click here.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln played an extremely significant role in American history. Lincoln’s assassination was the first president assassination up to that point in American history. Until he was killed, Abraham Lincoln led a good life. He went from job to job until he was twenty-five, holding such positions as a ferryboat assistant and a clerk at a shop in New Salem, Illinois. It was not until 1832 that Lincoln decided to enter into politics. Little did he knew that such a simple decision would lead to one of the most debated controversies of all time: his death.

The civil war is the most underlying cause for Abraham Lincoln to be regarded as a folk hero. His efforts in trying to deal with the nation severed his ties with a lot of people. Many northerners felt disappointed in his dealings with the civil war. Copperheads even believed that Lincoln betrayed the constitution with his policy of conscription. Even democrats who were highly supportive of the war effort found that the President was arbitrary and that he could be tyrannical. Well it seemed that he would be supported by his own party at least, right? Well, he was not. His fellow republicans judged him to be indecisive and inept because of his inability to take action on the subject of Emancipation. But, that was not because he was indecisive or inept at all. It was mainly because of the fact that if Lincoln acted too quickly on the subject of Emancipation, he would risk losing the allegiance of key political backers, offending the border states, and increasing the Democrats’ chances for political victory. Finally Lincoln told his cabinet of his intention to emancipate the slaves. His decision didn’t come without grief. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, urged the president to delay his announcement until a complete and decisive military victory in the war was evident. The victory at Antietam gave Lincoln the necessary chance to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Even though he was set in his actions, he managed to show his resolve when members of his cabinet begged him to forget about Emancipation completely. And by refusing, he showed his vision and humanity, which included a high set of morals. Finally, despite constant begging of him not to do it by members of his cabinet , Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day in 1863. The thing with that was that most people didn’t know that it freed only the slaves in unconquered parts of the confederacy. So even though it technically freed the slaves, it had no immediate effect. Most slaves would go and set fires to their masters’ barns and do all other kinds of bad things, then they would come to find out that they were not really free and have to get punished greater for the actions they took while they were “free”. Lincoln also came under fire in the Election of 1864. The Democrats accused Lincoln of Arbitrarily expanding his executive power. He alienated a lot of supporters by vetoing the Wade-Davis bill, which helped reinforce the Democrats’ claims and also led to cries of usurpation. Even though he lost a ton of votes by his actions, Lincoln still managed to gather enough support to be re-elected. In his inaugural address in 1865, Abraham Lincoln urged reconciliation. He wanted people to forgive and forget. He also tried to lead by example. Lincoln began to restore state governments in three former confederate states. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see his vision come to pass. Just five days after the surrender at Appomattox, the President was assassinated at Ford’s Theater while attending a play there.

There were many controversies involving Lincoln’s death. The man who shot him point blank in the head with a derringer ball, John Wilkes Booth, was shot dead by federal troops near Bowling Green, Virginia two weeks after his escape from the crime scene. (Stefoff, 98) At least, that’s how we have been lured into believing it happened. Booth was an arrogant actor who was a Pro-South advocate. He promoted the south in every perceivable way except the most obvious. He would not put on a Confederate uniform and fight. There has been evidence that shows Booth had provocative links to the south.

Take for instance, his way that he used his celebrity status as a cover for his “other” job: smuggling medicine to the south. Around the time of the assassination, a steady stream of pamphlets linked Booth to the Copperheads, a Northern Democratic group that was viewed as southern sympathizers, and their secret society, the Knights of the Golden Circle. There were also two other assassination plots along with the one to kill Lincoln that Booth was reported to be a part of. One to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward (he lived) and the other to kill vice president Andrew Johnson (never came to pass due to a conspirator with cold feet.) Other reports are that Booth was working for traitors among Lincoln’s own cabinet. The civil war was barely over and didn’t seem concluded, so it fell upon the northern government to blame the plot on the south, not sparing the confederate president Jefferson Davis from indictment.(Howard, 134-36)

To say that Booth was a pawn of the government in a government plot to assassinate the president is not all that hard to swallow. There was one man who profited greatly from Lincoln’s assassination. That man was Lincoln’s own Secretary of War, Edward M. Stanton. Stanton was a member of the Radical Republican faction that bitterly opposed Lincoln’s lenient reconstruction plan for the south. He stood to consolidate his own power if the north imposed a hard-line military occupation instead. Stanton’s behavior around the time of the assassination was also highly suspicious. He refused a request by the President to allow the Secretary of War’s assistant, Major Thomas Eckert, to accompany Lincoln to the fateful performance at Ford’s Theater. Did Stanton know something that Lincoln did not? I think so. But that’s not all. Despite all the constant death threats against Lincoln, and an earlier kidnap attempt by Booth in which the actor shot the famous Stovepipe hat clean off of Lincoln’s head; only one bodyguard accompanied the President to Ford’s Theater. And the one that went was not exactly the most ideal choice for a bodyguard. He abandoned the President in his hour of need to have a few cold ones down at the corner pub. Another instance of government involvement is evident with the inclusion of commercial telegraph lines. On the evening of the assassination, those telegraph lines, which are located in Washington and were controlled by the government during wartime, mysteriously went dead, thus delaying the news of Booth’s escape. Could this be evidence that government insiders helped the killer in his escape? Or was it merely coincidence? Before making a decision, listen to this. A close friend of Lincoln’s, Ward H. Lamon, (who was the U.S. Marshall for Washington) had often been there to warn the President about assassination plots. But on the evening of the murder, he was strangely out of town. One last piece of key evidence would be in the identification and disposal of John Wilkes Booth’s body. The fact that it was done in total secrecy does not help the case for it not to be a conspiracy. If few people saw the body, then how did they know that he was dead? That’s something to think about. (Howard, 156-159, 180-185)

The impact that Lincoln’s death had on society is extremely great. Because of his death, many people haven’t felt the same way about politics since. “Strong men have bowed down and prayed that the great president has gone to the good lord for doing such a mighty fine job here, ” said Gary Watts. (Turner, 213) Today, the President does not go anywhere without the proper security. If he did, it would be unusually suspicious and cries of, “Conspiracy” might break out. Because of Lincoln’s death, American politics will never be the same. They thought that they had good security with JFK, and look what happened to him. So being that this was the first presidential assassination, it was the main reason why we have the secret service that we have today. Another important impact on society is how we view the population as a whole. Before this happened, the U.S. was pretty much a good nation, with a few bad apples. But after this, the bad apples seemed to multiply. There became more and more instances of assassination and other crimes. We have also come to learn that by killing one man, we don’t get rid of the ideas that he had. They just become translated to someone else. The Lincoln assassination not only solidified the American President as a target of terrorism for years to come, but established the American President as someone who could be killed. It happened a few times after Lincoln, and we can’t be totally sure, but it might happen again.

Matt

Works Cited

Primary

"Civil War" Encyclopedia Britannica 1997 ed.

Stefoff, Rebecca. President of the United States: Abraham Lincoln Oklahoma City: Garret Education Corporation, 1986

Howard, Micheal. Secret Societies: Their Influence and Power in World History.
Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1989

Turner, Thomas Reed. Beware the People Weeping: Public Opinion and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1982

Secondary

Martez, Larry. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Franklin Watts, 1984

Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M. Abraham Lincoln. New York:Chelsea House Publishers, 1986

[Editors note- Don't take any of the comments in this article personally. If you are offended by any of the comments within this article, just remember this one very important thing: The Lone Conspirators cannot be held responsible for any of the actions/writings contained in this website that may contain obscene/offensive material. Don't believe us? Then read our Mission Statement.]

Back