James M. McPherson
Ed. BUR Rizzoli
pagg: 110
14 April 1865: the fanatic actor John Wilkes Booth, supporter of the confederacy, entered the stage where Lincoln was at Ford's Theater in Washington and fired a shot at the President's head. The comedy he attended with his family turned into a tragedy.
A few hours later, the 15 April at 07.22 in the morning Lincoln died.
A few days earlier, the 4 April, Lincoln had entered victoriously in Richmond, the capital of the confederacy, hailed by thousands of freed slaves.
To those who threw themselves at his feet he said, "Don't kneel to me. That is not right. You must know to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will afterward enjoy."
(Do not kneel before me. It is not right. Kneel down for God alone and thank him for the freedom you will enjoy from now on).
There were those who loved him, and there were those who hated him to the point of killing him.
But why so much hate?
Lincoln's America was coming out of the Civil War and preparing for reconstruction. Lincoln had been the spiritual and material leader of the country. His speeches inflamed the crowds. With his stubbornness he had won the bloodiest civil war of the century.
Lincoln, on April 11, 1865, turned to the United States of America. In his speech "he expressed his willingness to educate African Americans and black veterans of the Union Army to exercise the right to vote in the restored Union, and promised a new announcement for the people of the South."
Booth was there.
It seems he said: "This means citizenship to blacks. Now, in the name of God, I will silence him."
And so he did!
But who was Lincoln and how did he come to lead the most powerful country in the world today?
Abraham Lincoln is born the 12 February 1809 in Kentucky, fifty miles from Louisville. Son of Thomas Lincoln, carpenter and farmer, and Nancy Hanks, illiterate.
He owes his passion for studying, perhaps, to his stepmother: Sarah Bush Johnston.
His father "condemned the lazy inclination for reading" of his son, who kept him away from healthy hard work.
Abraham chose a different path from that of his father, worked, studied and embarked on a career as a lawyer ... from there to politics the road was short.
In the 1851, the dying father called him to his bedside. He did not introduce himself, he said that "if we were to meet again now, I fear that our meeting would be painful rather than pleasant".
He didn't even show up at the funeral ...
These are some aspects of US President Abraham Lincoln, killed at the beginning of his second term.
McPherson's book is a small summary of Lincoln's life and the Civil War.
A quick read, interesting and to use as a starting point for further study.
Alessandro Rugolo
