John Wilkes Booth and the Assassination of Tyrants

uJohn Wilkes Booth was a Southern nationalist and a racist. He believed in the superiority of Southern manhood and the inferiority of the black races, and he never took pains to disguise either. Born in Bel Air, Maryland on 10 May, 1838, he was the scion of a prominent family of actors, and soon followed in their footsteps. But his childhood, though certainly not an unhappy one, did not mark him out for success. He was educated at a Quaker school and though considered intelligent was either unable or unwilling to learn. He was from an early age a dreamer, and something of a romantic. Despite attending a Quaker school he was raised an Episcopalian, a Church that had remained loyal to Britain throughout the American Revolution, and he always seemed to struggle with the concept of America as a Unitary State. By the time he was a teenager he was already involved in anti-immigrant politics. But by the age of 16, he had decided to follow his two brothers onto the stage.

His career on the stage was a success and his interpretation of Shakespeare well considered. He mixed in the best circles in Washington, and at 5′8″ with jet black hair and and a muscular athletic build, was considered to be one of the most handsome men in America and a darling of the ladies (indeed it was not unknown for well-heeled ladies to carry his picture in their purses) and something of a celebrity. By the late 1850’s he was earning $20,000 a year (about 500,000 today). But he was also committed to the cause of Southern independence, though he could never bring himself to actually fight for it. The nearest he came was when he borrowed the uniform of a member of the Virginia State Militia so he could witness the execution of John Brown; but he left Virginia before the outbreak of hostilities and returned to the stage.

By 1864, it was becoming increasingly evident that the Confederacy was going to lose the war. They had pinned their hopes on holding out long enough for the pro-peace candidate in the forthcoming Presidential election General George McLellan defeating Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln won by a landslide the South was plunged into despair. Booth, who had continued to entertain the good people of the North throughout the war and had acquired great wealth and much fame as a result, was disgusted with himself. He confided in his diary, ” I have to deem myself a coward, and I despise my own existence.” In March, 1865, he had witnessed Lincoln’s inauguration speech. He was so close to the President he felt he could touch him. He wrote, ” I had an excellence chance to kill the President, if I had wished.