A Plot to Kill President the

For several months, actor John Wilkes Booth’s band of conspirators had plotted to capture President Abraham Lincoln and hold him hostage in exchange for Confederate prisoners.

- Christina Mierau

President Abraham Lincoln was watching a play when the assassin struck.

Several early attempts had failed. With Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, Booth became desperate. “Our cause being almost lost,” he wrote in his diary, “something decisive and great must be done.”

An opportunity to act came on Friday, April 14. Booth was at Ford’s Theatre when word arrived from the White House that President and Mrs. Lincoln would attend that night’s performance of Our American Cousin. Lincoln was fatalistic about security, saying that no system could stop an assassin, so he traveled with little protection.

Booth called together his conspirators and mapped out a plan: While he attacked Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, assassins would kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson as well. With one bold stroke, the North would lose its top three leaders, and the nation would collapse in chaos.

Fatalistic describes an acceptance of events as predetermined and not possible to alter.

A mezzanine is the lowest balcony in a theater.