A brief overview of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the escape of John Wilkes Booth, and the work of Aaron Copland to bring his words to a new generation.

1. assassination

2. April 14, 1865
•Unfortunately for
Lincoln, and perhaps the
nation, he was not around
to carry out his plans for
Reconstruction.

3. April 14, 1865
• John Wilkes Booth, one of the
great actors of his
time, conspired with a number
of others to kidnap President
Lincoln, believing that they
could exchange him for
Confederate prisoners of
war, and maybe even the end of
the war itself.

4. April 14, 1865
• Booth, however, was
unsuccessful with this plan
before General Lee had
surrendered and so devised
another plot, this time to
assassinate the President, the
Vice-President, Secretary of
State, Secretary of
War, General Grant, and others.

5. April 14, 1865
•On the night of April
14, 1865, President
Lincoln and his wife
decided to make a trip to
Ford’s Theater to see the
English play Our
American Cousin.

6. April 14, 1865
•When John Wilkes Booth
found out that Lincoln
would be at the play that
night, he got word to his
co-conspirators and put
his plot into motion.

7. April 14, 1865
• Being quite familiar with the
play and the theater, Booth
was able to enter the
President’s private box at the
theater at the precise moment
when the audience screamed
with laughter and shot
President Lincoln below the
left ear.

8. escape
•The only thing left for
Booth now was to get out
of the President’s box as
quickly as possible.

9. escape
• His only option was to jump
from the box to the stage
below, which was made more
difficult because he got his
riding spur caught in the
flags that fronted the box.

10. escape
• He landed awkwardly on the
stage and broke his
ankle, which would slow
down his escape
considerably.

11. escape
• After shooting Lincoln and
leaping on to the stage, he
uttered the state motto of
Virginia, “Sic semper
tyrannis” (“Thus always to
tyrants”) and left the stage
saying “The South is avenged.”

12. escape
• For almost two weeks, Booth
evaded pursuers as he tried to
get deeper and deeper into the
South, where people who
sympathized with him would
certainly hide and protect him.

13. escape
• Slowed by his ankle, Booth
was killed on April 26, 1865
trying to escape the barn that
he was hiding in after Union
troops set fire to it.

14. escape
• The course of Reconstruction
had forever been changed
and Booth’s actions may
have served to hurt his
beloved South more than had
he not shot Lincoln.

15. tribute
• In 1942, as part of the
effort to keep up
patriotism during World
War II, Aaron Copland
was asked to compose a
work about an “eminent
(important) American.”

16. tribute
•His piece, called Lincoln
Portrait, used quotes
from Lincoln’s speeches
as well as a full
orchestra to portray what
he thought of Lincoln.

17. tribute
•The first piece that you
are going to hear is
called “Fanfare for the
Common Man,” another
Aaron Copland piece.

18. Aaron Copland’s
Fanfare for the
Common Man

19. Aaron Copland’s
Lincoln Portrait

20. “Fellow citizens, we
cannot escape history."
That is what he said.
That is what Abraham
Lincoln said.

21. "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.
We of this congress and this administration
will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
personal significance or insignificance can
spare one or another of us. The fiery trial
through which we pass will light us down in
honor or dishonor to the latest generation.
We, even we here, hold the power and bear
the responsibility." [Annual Message to
Congress, December 1, 1862]

22. He was born in Kentucky, raised in
Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And
this is what he said. This is what
Abe Lincoln said.

23. "The dogmas of the quiet past are
inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty
and we must rise with the occasion. As
our case is new, so we must think
anew and act anew. We must
disenthrall ourselves and then we will
save our country." [Annual Message to
Congress, December 1, 1862]

24. When standing erect he was six
feet four inches tall, and this is
what he said.

25. He said: "It is the eternal struggle between
two principles, right and wrong, throughout
the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you
toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.'
No matter in what shape it comes, whether
from the mouth of a king who seeks to
bestride the people of his own nation, and
live by the fruit of their labor, or from one
race of men as an apology for enslaving
another race, it is the same tyrannical
principle." [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15
October 1858]

26. Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe
Lincoln was a quiet and a
melancholy man. But when he
spoke of democracy, this is what he
said.

27. He said: "As I would not be a
slave, so I would not be a master.
This expresses my idea of
democracy. Whatever differs from
this, to the extent of the
difference, is no democracy."

28. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth
president of these United States, is
everlasting in the memory of his
countrymen. For on the
battleground at Gettysburg, this is
what he said:

29. He said: "That from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion. That we here
highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain. That this nation
under God shall have a new birth of
freedom and that government of the
people, by the people, and for the
people shall not perish from the
earth."