Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase For Lincoln's Killer Quotes
"Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in."
"Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Wal, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal."
"The very heavens seemed to have come down, and the stars twinkled in a sort of faded way, as if the solar system was out of order."
"I have not time," Ned replied. The play was going on. He could not neglect his backstage duties and waste time holding a horse.
"What would you advise, Mamma? You know I am always advised by you."
"I think a well-regulated affection ought to incline to Asa Trenchard."
"The President, at the time he was shot, was sitting in this position: he was leaning his hand on the rail, and was looking down at a person in the theatre."
"Sic semper tyrannis," he thundered. "The South is avenged."
"Assassination is not an American practice or habit, and one so vicious and desperate cannot be engrafted into our political system."
"For God’s sake, take him home to the White House to die."
"Leave it to Laura Keene to try to upstage his spectacular performance."
"The president of the United States would die with dignity, in a proper bed."
"Surgeon, give me your commands and I will see that they are obeyed."
"I congratulate you all that the wounds are not mortal."
"The world may censure me for what I am about to do; but I am sure posterity will justify me." - John Wilkes Booth
"Now he belongs to the angels." - Edwin Stanton
"All play and no work makes Jack a bad boy." - Frances Mudd
"My back hurts me dreadfully." - John Wilkes Booth
"I guess you think I have very little hospitality; you have been sick all day and I have not been up to see you." - Frances Mudd
"I will be compelled to leave home nay how, and how soon I care not." - Letter from "Sam" to John Wilkes Booth
"The town was full of soldiers and people coming and going all the while." - Colonel H. H. Wells
"I do not feel right stalking about with means, and more from appearances a beggar." - Letter from "Sam" to John Wilkes Booth
"Until today nothing was ever THOUGHT of sacrificing to our country’s wrongs."
"But its failure was owing to others, who did not strike for their country with a heart."
"I walked with a firm step through a thousand of his friends, was stopped, but pushed on."
"A Col. was at his side. I shouted Sic semper BEFORE I fired."
"In jumping broke my leg. I passed all his pickets, rode sixty miles that night, with the bone of my leg tearing the flesh at every jump."
"I can never repent it, though we hated to kill; Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
"The country is not what it WAS. This forced Union is not what I have loved."
"I care not what becomes of me. I have no desire to out-live my country."
"This night (before the deed), I wrote a long article and left it for one of the Editors of the National Intelligencer, in which I fully set forth our reasons for our proceedings."
"After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gun boats till I was forced to return wet cold and starving, with every man’s hand against me, I am here in despair."
"For doing what Brutus was honored for, for what made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat."
"I hoped for no gain. I knew no private wrong. I struck for my country and that alone."
"God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong. Yet I cannot see any wrong except in serving a degenerate people."
"I have only heard of what has been done (except what I did myself) and it fills me with horror."
"God try and forgive me, and bless my mother."
"I have too great a soul to die like a criminal."
"I bless the entire world. Have never hated or wronged anyone."
"This last was not a wrong, unless God deems it so. And its with him to damn or bless me."
"I would not have turned a dog from my door in such a condition."
"It is not the substance, but the manner in which a kindness is extended, that makes one happy for the acceptance thereof."
"The sauce in meat is ceremony; meeting were bare without it."
"I have been endeavoring to get an opportunity to write you but have been so constantly on the move."
"We were sent here, old man; we understand you have good teams."
"This country was formed for the white, not for the black man."
"It was better to leave the country than swear loyalty to the Union."
"I thought you would be done pressing horses in the Northern Neck."
"Never till the great trumpet comes shall the grave of Booth be discovered."
"The river-bottom may ooze about it... but we shall never know."
"Mysterious, incomprehensible, unattainable... the assassin of a nation’s head rests somewhere in the elements, and that is all."
"I will not tell you where. The only man who knows is sworn to silence."
"A country groaned beneath this tyranny and prayed for this end."
"May God Bless And Protect You and keep you from the snares of the Wicked One."
"I have given up all that makes life sweet and Holy."
"Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
"I can never repent it, though we hated to kill."
"God’s will be done. I have only heard what has been done...and it fills me with horror."
"April 1865 was a month like no other in our history."
"In less than a month, lived through the most intensely dramatic series of events in the history of the United States."
"Manhunt is meant to be not an encyclopedia of the assassination, but a dramatic account of the events."
"The best account of those weeks is a splendid synthesis of matters civil, military, and political."
"Any student of the Lincoln assassination should read to understand the context of Booth’s crime."
"To see the streets and architecture of the wartime capital as Lincoln, Booth, the conspirators, and the manhunters saw them, there are no better time machines than two photographic histories."
"He fights back the angry waters and prevents them from undermining and overwhelming the land."
"Lincoln belongs to the 'ages,' not the 'angels.'"
"Asia Booth Clarke’s conciliatory but hagiographic comments come from her memoir, 'The Unlocked Book,' page 100."