How troubled does someone need to be to assassinate one of the finest presidents this country has ever had? John Wilkes Booth grew up in a disorderly household. He was always hiding in the shadows of his actor family members. Anger quickly became a habit for Booth. Although John Wilkes Booth claims to have had his reasons for murdering Abraham Lincoln, this only explains, it does not excuse, the action (O’Reilly, 26). John Wilkes Booth pulled the trigger in Ford’s Theater on April 15, 1865 and assassinated the 16th president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was unjustified because he worked to end slavery and lead our country humbly through the tremendous pressures put on him during the Civil War; however, some may believe the President was attempting to remove the Constitution …show more content…
A large group of people believed killing Lincoln was a necessity to keeping slavery and the southern way of life (O’Reilly, 27). John Wilkes Booth thought it was his duty to kill the president. His hatred was so strong. In fact, he believed he was “the only man in America who can end the North’s oppression,” (O’Reilly, 26). People were wrong to think Lincoln would remove the Constitution because he did not have the power to do so. The Constitution authorized slavery so Lincoln left this alone and did not technically try to change that (Pruitt). Although, Lincoln did make the first steps to ending slavery, and that was one of the best things our country did. Slaves were treated as though their only life purpose was to help their owners. It was very “degrading.” The owners physically forced the slaves to work and if they did not, they were threated or beaten (Hamner). Slavery was, no doubt, horrible and Lincoln could see that and attempted to stop it. This was no reason to kill