Introduction
President Abraham Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth on 14th April 1965. The president later succumbed to the shot injury on April 15, 1865[1]. His death came just after being sworn in as the president for the second term on March 4, 1865. In addition to that, he had witnessed the surrender of the Confederate army to the union on April 9, 1865, which marked the end of the civil war in the United States. The president had gathered in Ford’s Theater on April 14 alongside his colleagues to watch a film when the assassin, a renowned actor, planned to actualize his plot of killing Lincoln. The plot to kill Abraham Lincoln was embedded in the fact that the actor, John Wilkes Booth, was a Confederate sympathizer and had thought that the best way to foster the needs of the Confederate states was by eliminating the President, who played a key role in condemning the confederation of states[2]. Apart from killing the President, the assassin and other accomplices also planned to kill General Ulysses Grant, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and secretary of state William Steward. Booth’s accomplices were unsuccessful on their mission thus only Booth was successful in his plot. Booth’s co-conspirators were convicted for being knowledgeable about the issue for which they never reported. They were later hanged. However, after an intensive manhunt for Booth by the Army and the secret service, he was discovered in a barn in Virginia. The army threatened to set the barn on fire but Booth did not surrender. Booth later died of a gunshot. Despite the successful assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his demise posed uncertainties for the future of the United States.
Impact of the Civil War period on the American future
As mentioned earlier, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated due to his opposition to the Confederate states. Such opposition resulted in the launch of civil war in the United States. It is essential to examine the key causes of civil war in the United States before evaluating its impact on the future of America, especially after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The main cause of the civil war was embedded in the moral issue of slavery[3]. One of the key concerns was state’s rights where the southern states wanted to influence the laws enacted by the federal government about slavery. As such, they wanted to have freedom in keeping the slaves and transferring them whenever they wished without the influence of the federal government[4]. The next issue was embedded in the territorial expansion where the Southern states wanted to take slaves to western states to expand their territories but Northern states opposed such motive. The southern states resolved to secession especially after the election of Abraham Lincoln without their support, a move that spearheaded the beginning of the civil war.
Just after the death of Abraham Lincoln, his vice president Andrew Johnson replaced him. At that time, the southern States had enacted policies to regulate any activity done by the blacks and slaves. Usually, such policies were described as the black codes. Black codes had an impact on the future of America such that the blacks and slaves were not allowed to take part in their democratic right of voting[5]. In addition to that, the blacks were not to participate in free labor and their association was regulated. Andrew Johnson opposed such codes and fostered the freedom of all the blacks within the United States. Andrew needed to see a society where the blacks would be free to be employed in the United States and also marry. Ideally, such proposals were opposed by the Southern States. In addition to that, some of the Republicans in Northern America thought that the proposal by Andrew Johnson was not effective since it would promote black supremacy over the whites. Despite their discomfort, they did not publicly oppose the President. They proposed an amendment to the President’s proposal in what came to be the civil rights bill of 1866.The bill advocated for equality among the people regardless of their race or gender. In addition to that, it limited the authority of the states to deprive citizens of protection, especially when seeking lawsuits or contracts[6]. However, the bill did not mention that blacks had a right to be voted in public offices. Congress passed the bill and to the surprise of the public, the president vetoed it. The bill marked an essential milestone in the thirteenth amendment where the right and freedom of people were given priority and the autonomy of the states was limited.
Modification of the thirteenth amendment spearheaded the enaction of the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment was embedded in the principle of citizenship[7]. Any individual born in the United States was to be taken as a citizen of the United States and no state was required to deprive him of any rights or freedom when compared to the White men. As such, any state that would not grant equal voting rights to its citizens was bound to limit its influence in Congress. The fourteenth amendment was later ratified by the states However, there was no provision that the blacks would be voted but they were allowed to vote for their preferred candidates to represent them in Congress. The fifteenth amendment preceded the election of Grant as the president of the United States. The fifteenth amendment prohibited the state and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on their race[8]. As such everyone was allowed to practice their democratic right through voting. The main limit of the fifteenth amendment was that women were not factored as participants in the democratic and hence the great constitutional revolution prompted radical women to fight for their freedom just as they fight for slavery had been. Such revolutions influenced the future of America where each citizen had the right to vote and be voted in any public position provided, he fulfilled the constitutional requirements. In addition to that, people would be treated equally before the law regardless of differences in race or origin. Nevertheless, the state and the federal government would not deprive citizenship rights to individuals provided they have been born in the United States.
Conclusion
The paper aimed at investigating how the assassination of Abraham Lincoln put the future of the United States in question. The findings indicated that after the assassination of Lincoln, there was a continuous amendment to the constitution to promote equality. For instance, there was the ratification of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment which reduced the influence of state and federal government in the deprivation of the rights of citizens born in the United States. In addition to that, the citizens were allowed to vote or contest regardless of their gender and race hence marking a twist from what the confederacy advocated for.
Bibliography
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Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Justin Peck. “Foreshadowing the Civil Rights Counter-Revolution: Congress and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race (2021): 1-28. https://sites.usc.edu/jajenkins/files/2021/08/foreshadowing.pdf
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Posey, Emil. “TVCWRT Civil War Tutorial, Part VII; Combat Ends, 1865; Politics.” https://tvcwrt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Final-Part-VII-Combat-Ends-1865-Politics.pdf
[1] Posey, Emil. “TVCWRT Civil War Tutorial, Part VII; Combat Ends, 1865; Politics.”
[2] Lucas, Alex Christian. “Assassin in the Crescent City: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth on his only visit to New Orleans in the Spring of 1864.” Johns Hopkins University 1.1 (2020)
[3] Hall, Andrew B., Connor Huff, and Shiro Kuriwaki. “Wealth, slave-ownership, and fighting for the Confederacy: An empirical study of the American civil war.” American Political Science Review 113.3 (2019): 658-673.
[4] Hall, “Wealth, slave-ownership, and fighting for the Confederacy: An empirical study of the American civil war.” 658
[5] Lavalley, Ryan, and Khalilah Robinson Johnson. “Occupation, injustice, and anti-Black racism in the United States of America.” Journal of Occupational Science (2020): 1-13.
[6] Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Justin Peck. “Foreshadowing the Civil Rights Counter-Revolution: Congress and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race (2021): 1-28.
[7] Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History: One Volume. WW Norton & Company, 2016.
[8] Love, Ebony. “Finding a New Path: Using the Fifteenth Amendment to Protect the Voting Rights of Returning Citizens.” U. Fla. JL & Pub. Pol’y 31 (2020): 161.
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