The Final Moments Of Abraham Lincoln: His Wife’s Account Of The President’s Last Words
The scene from that fateful night on April 14, 1865, is one that many of us have heard described over the years. It's a commonly-known fact that President Abraham Lincoln spent the last evening of his life attending a play in Washington, D.C., but few people know the details of what followed the 10:15 p.m. shooting.
The true final words that Lincoln spoke to his wife have been a source of discussion and disagreement throughout the years since his tragic passing. Keep reading to learn what some historians believe he said to her. Did this story change your perception of Lincoln's final moments?
A Night At The Theater
April 14, 1865 was a date that changed so much about American history, but the 16th president of the United States didn't know that. He and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended Ford’s Theater to see a performance of the play "Our American Cousin" from their private box.
At 10:15 p.m., a gunman named John Wilkes Booth snuck up behind the engrossed president and shot a bullet into the back of his head.
On The Heels Of Victory
Just five days before Lincoln was gunned down at the theater, the American Civil War had ended. This was a great victory for the president and the nation. The Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, signaling the end of the long and bloody conflict.
John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer and spy whose brutal act that April evening was part of a three-part plan of attack on the government of the United States.
Upset By The Abolition Of Slavery
Even though the Confederacy was based in the south, John Wilkes Booth remained up north during the Civil War. Coming from a family of actors, Booth himself pursued a career on the stage.
After attending a speech in which Lincoln stated that he was in favor of granting voting rights to former slaves, though, Booth jumped into action and planned Lincoln's assassination. He and a small group of co-conspirators had previously plotted a kidnapping plan against the president, but this time murder was the goal.
Multiple Deaths Were Planned
Booth learned that Abraham and Mary Lincoln would be in attendance at the theater that April night and decided to commit his devastating act. He had a small team of co-conspirators who were enlisted to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson (pictured) and Secretary of State William H. Seward at the same time Booth pulled the trigger on Lincoln.
Booth believed the murders of all three important men at once would throw the Union government into chaos, allowing the Confederacy to reorganize and continue the war.
Familiar With The Theater
As a prominent actor, John Wilkes Booth was familiar with Ford's Theater. In fact, he’d actually performed there himself a number of times so knew the building and its layout well.
The Lincolns’ attendance there in such a familiar place was the perfect opportunity for Booth to gain access to the president. Additionally, he was easily able to gain access to the president’s private box through his personal connections within the theater.
Late Arrival
The Lincolns weren't the only distinguished guests at the performance that night although certainly the most important and prominent. They brought as their guests the army officer Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris, who was the daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris. General and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant also planned to go, although they backed out before the play.
The Lincoln party arrived late to the theater, and upon their arrival, the orchestra interrupted the show to play "Hail to the Chief." All 1,700 people in attendance stood to applaud the president.
Lincoln's Security Agent Left The Theater
Of course, the president didn't attend the public event without security. A police officer named John Frederick Parker was assigned to protect Lincoln’s private box. However, he later told his family that Lincoln released him from duty until the end of the play.
So during the intermission, Parker went along with Lincoln’s valet and coachman to grab a drink at a nearby tavern, leaving the president’s box completely unguarded. John Wilkes Booth could easily gain access to the box. He quietly slipped in and locked the door behind him.
"Our American Cousin"
Not only was Booth familiar with Ford's Theater and its layout, but he also knew the play that was being performed that evening. He knew it so well, in fact, that he was able to time his ambush for the exact moment that actor Harry Hawk would be delivering a humorous line that was modified in honor of the president.
As laughter filled the theater around 10:14 p.m., Booth made his move. He crept up from behind and shot Lincoln behind his left ear with a pistol. The bullet passed directly through Lincoln’s brain and fractured both orbital plates before coming to rest near the front of his skull.
A Daring Escape
Henry Rathbone, the Lincolns' guest, turned and saw Booth over the fallen president and tried to apprehend him. However, Booth slashed the army officer from the elbow to his shoulder with a dagger.
Booth then leaped from the box to the stage 12 feet below, allegedly injuring his left foot during the landing. He held the bloody knife overhead and according to some sources, uttered the Virginia state motto, "sic semper tyrannis," which translates to “thus always to tyrants!”
Chaos In The Theater
The series of shocking events set the entire theater into complete chaos, with some audience members thinking the disturbance was all part of the act.
In the confusion, Booth ran across the stage to an exit door, slashing orchestra leader William Withers Jr. on his way out. He escaped from the theater, mounted a waiting getaway horse, and disappeared into the night. A massive manhunt was soon underway for the assassin.
The Civil War
John Wilkes Booth’s motive for assassinating Abraham Lincoln stems from the president’s role in the American Civil War. The war, which raged from April 12, 1861, to May 9, 1865, was fought between the Union and the Confederacy. The Union consisted of the 20 free states and four border states, which were slave states that did not secede from the Union. West Virginia was added to the border state list in 1863.
The Confederate States of America was formed by the seven states in the southern part of the country, whose residents largely opposed the abolishment of slavery and seceded from the Union.
The Confederacy Felt Threatened By Lincoln
Because Lincoln had run his campaign on a platform that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western states, members of the Confederacy felt threatened.
Lincoln was not an abolitionist but did think that the institution of slavery was morally wrong, and he disagreed with the protections that the founders of the United States had outlined for the practice when they drafted the Constitution. In 1854, Lincoln addressed the nation, outlining his oppositions to slavery. He also admitted he didn't know exactly what should be done about it within the established political system.
Early Views
During an 1858 debate against opponent Stephen Douglas in the race for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln said that he did not support "bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races." He held many views that would be problematic in modern society.
However, he did believe that African Americans had every right to improve their lives through hard work. Since slavery made this type of societal advancement impossible, he felt that the institution of slavery was ethically wrong.
Lincoln's Opinions Evolved Over Time
However, Lincoln's views changed over time. During the last speech he ever gave, on April 11, 1865, the president expressed that he felt that any Black man who had served on the side of the Union during the war should be given the right to vote.
This was a different opinion than he had expressed years earlier during the 1858 Senate debate when he'd said that African-Americans shouldn’t have the right to vote, serve on juries, hold office, or marry white people.
John Wilkes Booth's Background And Strong Political Views
Lincoln's eventual assassin was from a prominent theatrical family in Maryland. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, was a noted British Shakespearean actor who, along with his wife, moved to the United States from England in 1821. John's brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr., were both actors as well.
Prior to the Civil War, Booth found success as a leading actor in Richmond, Virginia, where he resided for the 1859–1860 theatre season. He was outspoken in his political views and frequently expressed a hatred of abolitionists and Abraham Lincoln. Booth even attended the hanging of abolitionist leader John Brown in 1859.
Booth And His Family Didn't Agree
Like many families in Maryland, the Booth family was divided in their views on slavery. John Wilkes had many arguments with his brother Edwin, who refused to appear on stage in the South or listen to his partisan politics and fiery denunciations of Lincoln and the North. The brothers' views on slavery were so extremely different that Edwin stopped welcoming John Wilkes into his home.
John Wilkes Booth’s hatred of Lincoln continued to grow over time. He was even arrested in St. Louis in 1863 because of "treasonous" remarks he made about the president.
Lincoln Was A Theater Fan And Had Seen Booth Perform
According to the book Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln And The Soldiers’ Home, as well as other sources, Lincoln was actually a fan of Wilkes Booth as an actor. After seeing Booth perform in "Marble Heart" at Ford’s Theater on November 9, 1863, Lincoln extended an invitation for the entertainer to visit the White House.
However, actor Frank Mordaunt later said that Booth "had on one pretext or another avoided any invitations to visit the White House." Booth refused to meet with the president he so loathed.
April 14, 1865
President Lincoln went about his business as usual on April 14, 1865, obviously having no idea how the day would end. He started the morning with a cabinet meeting to discuss how to treat defeated Confederate leaders and what type of economic aid to provide to the South.
After that was a luncheon with his wife Mary before more meetings. One of those appointments was with a former slave named Nancy Bushrod, who had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Carriage Ride To The Theater
After his official business was over for the day, Lincoln and Mary went on an afternoon carriage ride together. And later that evening, their carriage picked up their guests Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris and headed to Ford's Theater.
After being welcomed with "Hail to the Chief," the party was seated. According to Stephen Mansfield's book Lincoln’s Battle with God, Mary proceeded to flirt with Lincoln, asking him, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?”
His Final Words?
Over the years, Mary had developed a reputation for jealousy, and it's said that she would not hesitate to chastise anyone she felt was acting inappropriately around Lincoln. As researcher Joanne Shelby-Klein reports, "Mary Todd Lincoln did not want women alone with her husband; she was notoriously jealous.’’
But at the theater that fateful night, her comments about Ms. Harris were playful rather than accusatory. The president’s response to his wife: “Why, she will think nothing of it." For years, these words were thought to have been Lincoln’s last.
What Reverend N.W. Miner Said
The Lincolns' friend and neighbor, Reverend Noyes W. Miner, later claimed that Mary told him what the president's last words to her had been. Miner recalled the details of her revelation in a manuscript titled "Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln."
According to Mary Todd Lincoln, her husband told her that they would “not return immediately to Springfield [their previous home].” Instead, Lincoln said, “We will go abroad among strangers where I can rest.”
The Holy Land
According to Miner, Lincoln's last words were ones filled with religious faith. "We will visit the Holy Land," Lincoln said to his wife Mary. “We will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no place I so much desire to see as Jerusalem.”
At 7:22 am, the following day after being shot at Ford’s Theater, the president succumbed to his injuries.
There's Some Doubt That Lincoln Uttered These Words
These alleged final words of Abraham Lincoln were a surprise to some and are sometimes excluded from accounts of the president's final hours. Stephen Mansfield addressed this in his book. "It is natural that some should doubt. Schoolchildren do not learn them as they do the other facts of Lincoln’s life."
Mansfield further asserted that some scholars are reluctant to admit that Lincoln was a religious man. “Lincoln was, after all, a religious oddity. He never joined a church. In fact, he went through periods in his life when he was openly anti-religion – even anti-God.”
A Fabrication?
Miner's claims about Lincoln's last words have been criticized by some, which Stephen Mansfield acknowledged. "Surely, critics will say, to insist that these words are true, or that they are any reflection of Lincoln’s faith, is part of a religious re-working of his life – part of a misguided attempt by the pious to refashion him into a gleaming religious icon of some imagined national religion."
He continued, saying that critics would claim that "this is the fruit of bad research and pitiful scholarship: more myth than history." Miner's account has received lots of support over the years, though.
Many Historians Have Supported Miner's Claims
Because Miner's account of Lincoln’s final words stemmed from something that Mary allegedly told him, some prominent Lincoln historians have deemed his writings accurate and truthful.
One of these scholars, Dr. James Cornelius, is the curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. "We believe the words to be substantiated," he said. Other historians such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Allen C. Guelzo, and Wayne Temple, have also expressed the belief that Miner's text is true.
A Clue To Lincoln's Religious Beliefs?
Seven years after Lincoln's assassination, his widow presented their friend, Reverend Noyes W. Miner, with a personal gift: a leather-bound bible, gilded in gold, that had belonged to the president.
Miner's family kept the bible for 150 years before donating it to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Illinois. Ian Hunt, head of acquisitions for the library and museum, calls the bible "a new opportunity to reflect on Lincoln's religious beliefs." Could it be that he was more religious than some people believe? It certainly appears that way, although the topic will likely be debated for many years to come.
Lincoln's Funeral Procession
Lincoln's funeral procession was held five days after his assassination, on April 19, 1865. His body remained in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 through April 21 before being carried by a train called "The Lincoln Special" to its final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.
This custom-outfitted train, with a large portrait of Lincoln over the cowcatcher, traveled through 180 cities so grief-stricken Americans could pay their respects and say a final goodbye to the fallen president.
A Nation In Mourning
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the train tracks to bid Lincoln farewell. Some had bonfires, some sang, and some stood in silent mourning as the train carrying the president's body passed.
Some historians believe the overwhelming public reaction to the president's sudden death was partially a "response to the deaths of so many men in the war." Regardless, Lincoln's assassination ushered in "a period of profound national mourning."
Final Resting Place
Alongside his young son William Wallace Lincoln, the fallen president was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. William had succumbed to typhoid fever three years prior.
Mary did not fare well in the aftermath of her husband's assassination. Her grief was so intense that she was unable to even attend the funeral. Mary suffered from physical and mental health problems for much of the rest of her life.
The Manhunt For John Wilkes Booth
After a 12-day manhunt for the president's assassin, John Wilkes Booth was located hiding out in a tobacco barn in Maryland. He refused to surrender, even when soldiers set the barn on fire.
He was shot in the neck as he moved around in the burning barn, before being dragged outside where he died three hours later. In his pocket was his diary, in which he’d written about Lincoln’s death. "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
What About The Plot To Kill Andrew Johnson And William H. Seward?
The man assigned to kill the vice president, George Atzerodt, completely lost his nerve and didn't make an attempt. He and Powell were later hanged for their involvement in the plot.
