[Rhodes22-list] Abraham Lincoln & John Wilkes Booth

[Roger Pihlaja]

Todd,

You state Booth's motive for assonating Lincoln as if it was documented historical fact.  In reality, Booth was an actor with a flair for the melodramatic, a southern sympathizer, probably an alcoholic, probably had other physiological problems, & was certainly a complex individual.  Union soldiers cornered Booth in a barn and killed him soon after Lincoln's death, so he was never questioned.  All we know of his motives comes from some of his writing and the testimony of others who knew him.  Much of this testimony comes from people who were implicated in the conspiracy, so how reliable is that testimony likely to be?  Lincoln's assignation came after the long war was finally over.  I think Habeas Corpus had been restored by then.  I believe Booth assonated Lincoln as an act of frustration over a cause lost at enormous cost & revenge upon the individual, who symbolized in Booth's mind, the triumph of the Union over the CSA.  But, historians will probably debate Booth's motives for as long as there is a United States of America.

Lincoln's suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War was controversial at the time & remains so to this day.  In the midst of a country tearing itself apart in a bloody civil war, was this suspension of a constitutional freedom justifiable?  Certainly, the Civil War was unprecedented in its scope and magnitude in our country's history.  Although people were imprisoned for the duration of the war, they were all released afterwards and the Writ of Habeas Corpus was restored once the union had been saved.  Could the union have been saved without suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus?  Again, this is a question historians will probably debate forever.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium