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Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Essay

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It’s March 4th of 1865, when Abraham delivered his second Inaugural Address. Standing in the crowd listening to this, I don’t believe a word. Standing with fellow confederate sympathizers I wanted to make a difference for them. Lincoln is wrong and someone needs to change. “I had a splendid chance… to kill the president where I stood” (American Experience: TV's Most-watched History Series). After he gave his speech, I was ready to leave. I believe Lincoln is determined to destroy the beloved south and overthrow the Constitution (Hanmer). A few of us decided to go and talk about what we could do to fix the problem we have. Lewis Powell, George Artzerodt, David Herold, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen and John Surratt arrived at my house to conspire with me. …show more content…

We could kidnap him,” I said with a huge devious smile on my face. “Except how exactly will we do this? What’s our plan?” Everyone was saying different ideas, some there was no way, other were okay. I finally thought about “capturing Lincoln in his box at Ford’s and lowering the president to the stage with ropes,” but I quit acting to focus on kidnapping Lincoln and have spent nearly $10,000 so far to outfit my band of kidnappers (Hamner). Today is March 17, 1865, also known as the day Lincoln is going to be kidnaped. I and my fellow conspirators are hiding in the bushes along a county road in Washington, D.C., waiting for the president’s carriage that is supposed to carry Lincoln to Campbell Hospital (Klein). After waiting for hours we realized that Lincoln was not coming. I am mad now, I want that man to get what he deserves. So at that moment I realized I didn’t want to just kidnap Lincoln, I want to kill him. After only days of thinking about killing Lincoln, I thought about who else just might stand in my way. So I decided we, me and my fellow conspirators, would not only kill Lincoln but also Grant, Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson

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