Edward Rojas 01-3-12
Lincoln’s Assassination Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States of America in 1860. He was president during the Civil War which began due to a disagreement on slavery between the north and the south. Thanks to Lincoln and his never-ending determination and leadership skills, the north and the south were brought together again after four years of fighting. Lincoln’s death was not in vain because it brought the country back together and ended slavery. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican president first elected in 1860 and re-elected in 1864. As president of the United States, Lincoln focused on freeing the slaves. His determined belief against slavery led him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. This document declared all slaves in the Confederate states to be freed from their owners. The Emancipation Proclamation greatly upset the Confederate states, but gave slaves and abolitionists a great amount of hope for a better future. The Civil War finally ended in 1865 after Lincoln was re-elected as president. Once the war was over Lincoln strived for creating peace between the north and the south. While doing this, the President was flexible and generous and asked for the south to lay down their arms and reunite with the north. Many who still supported slavery and the idea of a Confederacy felt like this was ridiculous and refused to support President Lincoln. One of the opposers to Lincoln’s belief of a united, slave-free country was John Wiles Booth. He was a Confederate who was greatly bothered by the south’s defeat in the Civil War and decided to express his view in a very dramatic way. Booth decided to assassinate President Lincoln on April 14th, 1865 in Ford’s Theatre. Booth shot