Abraham Lincoln

V

Second Term as President

At his second inaugural on March 4, 1865, Lincoln made a speech that stands among the greatest pronouncements in history. At the threshold of victory, Lincoln spoke only of peace and of ending the nation's sectional differences. His closing lines are among the most eloquent in the English language: “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

A

Surrender at Appomattox Court House

In the closing days of March, Sherman and Grant met with Lincoln to discuss terms of surrender. Lincoln told his generals that he hoped to get the troops of both sides back to their farms, stores, and families as speedily as possible. In early April, Grant took Petersburg and the Union army entered Richmond. Lincoln made a short trip to the fallen Confederate capital, and he was cheered wildly by freed slaves and Union soldiers. A Union general asked Lincoln how the conquered people of Richmond should be treated, and Lincoln answered, “If I were in your place, I'd let 'em up easy, let 'em up easy.” On April 9, 1865, just as Lincoln returned to Washington, Lee surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, a village in Virginia. The war was all but over.

Two days later, Lincoln addressed a celebrating crowd gathered outside the White House. Again he called for national unity and goodwill toward the defeated South. He appealed to his audience to “join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the practical relations between these states and the Union.”

B

Assassination of Lincoln

Standing in that crowd listening to Lincoln speak was an angry, half-crazed actor with pro-Southern sympathies, John Wilkes Booth. Booth had planned for some time to kidnap Lincoln and take him to Richmond. However, when Richmond fell, Booth decided on murder. He planned to assassinate Lincoln on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.

---

---

On that day, Lincoln and his wife, along with General and Mrs. Grant, were to attend a performance of a comic melodrama, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Early that day, Lincoln held a Cabinet meeting at which Secretary of the Treasury McCulloch noted that he had never seen the president “so cheerful and happy.” Lincoln told his Cabinet about a dream he had had the previous night, which he interpreted to mean that a final victory for Sherman was near. In this happy mood he did not mention another recent dream in which he had followed a crowd of people into the East Room of the White House. There he saw his corpse laid out, and he heard people say, “Lincoln is dead.”

That night the Lincolns went to the theater as scheduled. General and Mrs. Grant had been called away, and Miss Clara Harris and her fiancé, Major Henry R. Rathbone, occupied their places in the president's box. At about 10:30 pm, Booth made his way into the box. Choosing a moment when all attention was fixed on the stage, he put a pistol to Lincoln's head and fired once. The President slumped in his seat, unconscious. Booth leaped to the stage, shouting “Sic semper tyrannis,” the Virginia state motto, meaning “Thus ever to tyrants.” He made his escape, but was killed while resisting arrest 12 days later. The same day Lincoln was shot, an accomplice of Booth made an attack on Seward, but the secretary lived.

The stricken president was taken to a lodging house across the street from the theater. Mrs. Lincoln, friends, and Cabinet members waited through the night while doctors worked to save Lincoln's life. At 7:20 am on Saturday, April 15, 1865, Lincoln died. As they covered his face with a sheet, Secretary Stanton said, “Now he belongs to the ages.” A few hours later, Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president.

Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room of the White House. On April 19, Lincoln was given a military funeral in Washington. Two days later his coffin was placed on a special train that carried his body back to Springfield. On May 4 the train reached the end of its journey, and Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near his home in Springfield.

Of all the American presidents, Lincoln is probably the one about whom the most has been written. Many critical evaluations of his life have been published, but they have not diminished his stature, and he remains one of the foremost products of American democracy and an eloquent spokesman for its ideals.

	More from Encarta
	•  7 tips for funding an online degree •  How to succeed in the fashion industry without being a top designer •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain