Booth's Motivation For Lincoln Essay

Some saw him as the famous actor. Others saw him as the infamous assassin of Abraham Lincoln. In Booth’s childhood, he and his family were farmers, and they used slaves, therefore they supported slavery. This played as a factor for his hatred towards Lincoln. It came across him, that if he assassinated Lincoln, then perhaps the war could rage on and the south would have another opportunity to win ,and finally keep their way of life and continue harsh slavery. No matter what the consequences were, Booth wouldn't stop, he raged on to do whatever it takes to accomplish his mission. There were many motivations that drove Booth to assassinate Lincoln. The first motivation of Booth to assassinate Lincoln was that Booth viewed Lincoln as a corrupt

In Booth’s last diary entry, it said “From the time Lincoln was elected in 1860, there arose several conspiracies to kidnap or murder him. Pro-southern rebels began mailing him death letters.” This was him expressing himself to not be the only person to have an all-consuming hatred towards Lincoln. That others had the same feelings towards Lincoln, and that he was not alone. Others had went out of their way to publicly declare their opinion(s) on Lincoln, and that Booth could stand with others to continue the fight for slavery. Booth’s second motivation, was loosing the war. Booth believed that if he had captured, or killed Lincoln then the war would rage on, and the South would have another opportunity to win the war. Furthermore, if the South did win the war, then they would be able to finally keep their way of life without the North’s opinion of slavery. Booth just wanted to end the North by killing its leader. In Chasing Lincoln’s killer, it said “The Confederacy was dead. His cause was lost, and his dreams of glory were over.” This was him asserting that the Confederacy lost the war, and this profoundly made him doleful. The

The first quote to support this, was from his last diary, “I struck for my country, and my country alone”. When he said that, it meant that he was assassinating Lincoln for the good for the country. That he was wanting to better the country, and taking out its source of evilness would finally heal the country of its wounds from Lincoln. At the section where it said “… and my country alone.” this signified that he did it for the country, alone. Alone, he didn’t do it for him, only for the country. For the good of the country. This is saying that he did it on the behalf of the country. Not on the behalf of his desires for personal gain. No, this was saying that he did not do it for any personal gains, only for his country that he intended to make “great again”. “A country that groaned beneath his tyranny, and prayed for this to end, and yet now, behold the cold hands they extend to me.” This was from Booth’s last diary entry. This denoted that the country was being brought down from Lincoln’s iniquitous and regretted ever letting him to be president, and wished for it to end, yet now after he freed them from Lincoln, they hate him and despise him for what he saw as rescuing them. In other words, he acknowledged that the people where in pain form Lincoln, so he decides to attempt to free them. After he has