Abraham Lincoln mourning ribbon from the collection of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia It is virtually impossible to have any conversation about Abraham Lincoln without talking about the epic events surrounding his death. Countless books, exhibits, movies, and television documentaries have all failed to quench our thirst to know more about the murder of the 16th President. This endless fascination could itself be the subject of much research and debate. Why does it captivate us?
I think at least part of the answer is that it is America’s first great murder mystery. We want to know how it could have happened, who could do such a thing, and why. It is a case we feel compelled to try to solve. This is very understandable. Between the conspiracy theorists and the academic historians, there is plenty of material for everyone.
Putting aside the details for a moment, I think that one of the very interesting aspects of the assassination is the impact that it had on the country and its people. We live in an era of shocking news. Our generations have lived through Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy Assassination, and 9/11. In our digital, Internet world, news can reach us anywhere and at any time. Even in World War II, the reach of radio brought news right into the homes of most people. What is surprising to me about the assassination is that it reached people with almost the same immediacy as the news of Pearl Harbor or the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The telegraph had radically altered the way news was transmitted. It spread the word of the Lincoln assassination rapidly, and I believe contributed to the shock that the nation (but obviously mostly the North) experienced.
There is no doubt that the news of Lincoln’s murder was doubly shocking because it came so shortly after so much euphoric good news. The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, was the beginning of the end of the war. Northerners celebrated the news with fireworks, parades, bands and speeches. After four dark years of war, it was like the sun had come out for the first time. The citizens of Philadelphia would have learned of Lincoln’s death on the morning of April 15, 1865. It was not much time for the city to enjoy the first fruits of victory before being plunged into mourning.
That the assassination of Abraham Lincoln still holds such fascination to us today is no great surprise. That there are still countless conspiracy theories and secret plots involving the Confederate government does surprise me somewhat, although it should not. Lincoln stands among the pantheon of American historical figures. It has always been difficult for Americans to accept that someone such as John Wilkes Booth could bring to an end someone like Lincoln. Booth was a man with delusions of grandeur, who had enough charisma to attract a group of ne'er-do-well followers. But he was bold enough in that era of low security to kill the President of the United States. That is as sinister as the plot gets. And in the end, that is all the rhyme and reason there was to Lincoln’s death.
So while today Lincoln’s assassination is largely a curiosity, at the time it was a national wound. It was a scar that took a long time to heal. Historians can debate the degree to which history was changed by Lincoln’s death, but there can be little argument that it made the painful work of Reconstruction all the more difficult. While it is appreciated as a tragedy, I do not think it is often enough understood for the watershed event it was. The assassination ended one era in American history, and began another. We still live today in the era it began.
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