Why Is Lincoln's Assassination Justified

Abraham Lincoln could be considered a hero that saved a broken nation. However, one person in particular didn’t think so. In fact, that person despised him so much that he killed him. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot the president of the United States on April 14, 1865, while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre. John Parker, the security guard on duty, lunged at Booth right after the fire, but he lept from the balcony where Lincoln’s seat was and ran into the night on horseback. He was later found in a barn the next day, and was shot dead. Although the outcomes that Booth wanted to get out of this murder didn’t happen, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was justified for John Wilkes Booth because he had a reason for killing him, which was his frustration and anger at how Lincoln supported African Americans, and he was a Confederate sympathizer while Abe was part of the Union.

When Booth attended one of Lincoln’s inaugural speeches, he attempted to lunge at him because he was so mad, and the book Killing Lincoln even states “The site of so many blacks beaming up at him (Lincoln) makes him want to vomit,” (O’Reilly 6). This shows how Booth loathes Lincoln’s justifications on how the future United States will be: a free nation where everybody, including blacks, is equal. In Booth 's diary, written the day before he shot Lincoln, he wrote “Our country owed all her troubles to him [Lincoln], and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment,” (Booth, 1). The entry reveals that Booth is blaming Lincoln for the “troubles” of the country, by letting the blacks have freedom. Both of these justifications support that Booth’s frustration and anger at how Lincoln supported African Americans, is one reason for his