American History

One of the most shocking political events in the history of the United States of America is the assassination of US president Abraham Lincoln. Watching a play inside Fords Theater, Lincoln was shot at the back of his head by John Wilkes Booth, the single shot rendering a mortal flesh wound from which Lincoln would never be able to recover from.  The many witnesses present when Wilkes shot Lincoln easily established the crime itself. What captured the imagination of the people are the many different possibilities regarding the background of the assassination. Today, this is more popularly known as the conspiracy theories behind the assassination of Lincoln. Set in the backdrop of the American Civil War which was about to end, there were many political, cultural and economic considerations that many different groups are trying to protect as they anticipate the possible result of the victory of Lincoln in the American Civil War. This fueled the possibilities surrounding speculations as to who or what group was actually behind the assassination. Was Booth a determined assassin and a fanatic who, personally, has resolved to killing Lincoln because of his own personal political views Or was there a greater hand that had a significant role in how all of these things were planned, undertaken and executed What is important is that all of the theories were created under the consideration that the president, regardless of who killed him, was doomed for death for political reasons. The assassination was strongly influenced by social as well as political and cultural conditions at the time. Over the years, there were many theories behind the assassination of Lincoln. Although none were strongly proven as the true reason for the assassination, the mere fact that such cannot be dispelled just as easily allowed for the theories to persist and be of significance until today. For this reason, the paper will be examining, analyzing and discussing such theories.

The set of conspiracy theories that were created as a result of the guessing game surrounding the bigger picture involved in the plotting of Lincoln allowed for the surfacing of many different ideas. Above every other theory, the first one to be explored was the argument on whether the assassination was Booths personal plan as a result of his own political perspectives or was Booth merely one of the characters in a more complex assassination plan that involved more people. In the end, there is no direct evidence to support a larger conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, this will never be known considering the fact that Booth never got the chance to even be put to trial. He died shortly after being shot while being pursued and asked to surrender. What was certain already is that Booth, along with other identified conspirators like Powell and Atzerodt were involved in the conspiracy. This only heightened the passion of theorists to put together ideas regarding the assassination.

The first theory was about the involvement of then vice president Andrew Johnson in the assassination. There are many reasons for people to believe this is true. First, the death of Lincoln automatically gives Johnson the presidency. Second, Johnson and Lincoln have had some personal unpleasant moments with each other a few days before the assassination. Third, Booth was associated with Johnson. There are many ties that link the two together, like how they were connected during the war, the relationship of the mistresses they both have, and the fact that Booth was trying to communicate with Johnson after his assassination of Lincoln. The next theory to surface was the theory that the assassination was a plot that was hatched by the Confederate leaders. This is strongly military and political, considering the role of Lincoln in the war, the victory he was about to achieve and the impact of such victory for both the Union and Confederacy states. Many people believed that Lincoln was targeted by the Confederacy for assassination because his death can change a lot of things and this includes changing some political and military conditions.

Another idea that was being explored was the role of the British bankers particularly of Rothschilds in the assassination. This time, the reason was economic and financial. The British bankers have already designed a way on how to profit from the conditions that they predicted would result from the Civil War. However, it turns out Lincoln had other plans, which included restrictions in tax and the actions of Lincoln on slavery, all of which considered by British traders as moving against their own personal and business interest, reason enough for them to remove Lincoln in the picture, hiring Booth to do the task.. There were also beliefs that the Catholic Church was behind the assassination of the president. The catholic conspiracy theory of the assassination, for example, might furnish material to the historian to measure and analyze anti-Catholic sentiment among groups that believed the theory. For his part, Lincoln was not a proclaimed anti Catholic although in the past, his defense of a particular individual led to what was perceived as a defeat of the Catholic Church. The defeat was a result of Lincolns intervention, which some view as reason enough for the Church to have Lincoln assassinated.

The Secretary of War was also seen as a suspect in the plotting of the assassination of Lincoln. It was believed that Edwin Stanton was not in favor of Lincolns post-Civil War Reconstruction plans and had designed a plan to kill the president. As a Secretary of War, it was convenient for him to make Lincoln vulnerable during the assassination day by having prospective guards and protective measures weakened and by creating alibi to make sure that his end was protected. Many historians have seen many different reasons to believe that Stanton maybe guilty of plotting the death of Lincoln.

In the end there was no clearly established and strongly proven theory on the plot to kill Lincoln. Until today, what was known is the role of Booths and the other people arrested and tried shortly after the attempt. As to the nature of the plotters and if there were indeed others besides Booth, particularly those who are socially significant like politicians, military leaders, religious organizations, etc, everything remained as a theory. There is no proof sufficient enough to clearly pin the plotting of the assassination to one of the theories presented by historians and analysts. Lincolns death is one of the saddest times in the history of US, and is also one which is shrouded with a mystery that is still to be uncovered until today.