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FORD'S THEATRE |
| April 14, 1865 |
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"THUS
ALWAYS TO TYRANTS"
About
10:15 p.m. on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes
Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln who was watching a performance
of Our American Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, did
not act alone. He and his conspirators first intended to capture Lincoln
and trade him for thousands of Confederate prisoners of war. When this
attempt failed, Booth devised an assassination plan. He would kill
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The Nation Mourns
Newspaper headlines and telegrams spread the news of Lincoln's death. While much of the eastern United States knew within the first few days, it took weeks for stagecoaches to carry U.S. Mail informing the remote territories. The nation joined together to mourn. The mood was somber. Flags were flown at half-staff, buildings were draped in black, businesses were shut down, and bells tolled mournfully. An Illinois newspaper editor expressed his sentiments and those of the people: "He who writes this is weeping. He who reads it is weeping…Hushed be the city. Hung be the heavens in black." A nine-car funeral train transported Lincoln's coffin to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, for burial. Thousands of people showed up at depots along the way to pay their respects. Honoring an American Hero
Although discussion began almost immediately after Lincoln's death, it took decades to honor our first fallen President. No national protocol existed at that time for memorials to American heroes, which complicated the process. Debate also delayed commemoration as the nation came to terms with the Civil War and Lincoln's role in it. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. was finally completed in 1922, almost 60 years after the assassination. The Petersen House where Lincoln died was the first site associated with Lincoln's death to be recognized publicly. A small marble tablet was placed there in 1883, when it was still privately owned. The house changed hands many more times before it became a National Park Service property. The first floor rooms were restored in the early 1970s to their approximate appearance on the night Lincoln was shot. Immediately after the assassination, John Ford's Theatre was closed. When an angry crowd threatened to burn it down, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton posted a 24-hour guard to protect it. Ford tried to reopen his theatre in July 1865, but after he received threatening letters, Stanton closed the theatre permanently. The War Department leased and later purchased the building from Ford for offices, an Army Medical Museum, and a warehouse. In 1932, Ford's Theatre was reopened as the Lincoln
Museum to tell the story of the closing episode of the Civil War. In
1954, President Eisenhower signed a congressional act to restore the
historic building. The National Park Service completed its restoration
as a museum and working theatre in 1968, one hundred three years after
the assassination.
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Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. After the assault,
Booth jumped from the president's private box onto the stage below.
He was heard shouting "Sic semper tyrannis," Latin for "Thus
always to tyrants." Booth's jubilant cry expressed his assumed
triumph to avenge the South by eliminating Lincoln. The President died
at 7:22 a.m. the next morning in a back bedroom of the Petersen Boarding
House, located across the street from the theatre. Nearly two hours
later, his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was led outside to a waiting carriage.
Looking across the street to Ford's Theatre, she cried out, "That
dreadful house-that dreadful house! This awful place!"
Lincoln,
and his comrades were to eliminate Vice President Andrew Johnson and
Secretary of State William Seward simultaneously at 10:15 p.m., Good
Friday, April 14, 1865. If the plan succeeded, the Confederatecause
might revive and the civil fight continue to regain the South's independence.Although
Johnson was unharmed and Seward seriously wounded, only Lincoln died.
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Introduction
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