Before the Civil War John Wilkes Booth was a Maryland boy who came from a family of actors. Booth was an actor himself and was beloved by many for his roles in many different plays. When the war began Booth was a strong Southern sympathizer and had a strong hatred towards abolitionists so much so that he attended John Brown’s execution because he believed him to be a traitor. During the war Booth became a spy in the North and used his job as an actor as a cover to smuggle medical supplies acquired in the North into the South. As a very well-known actor, Booth had more freedom than most to travel around unrestricted. As the battles of the war waged on, Booth’s disgust with President Abraham Lincoln grew more and more each day. Booth believed …show more content…
Lincoln’s assassination set a series of events in order that would cause John Wilkes Booth to be hated by Southerners because of what he caused by his act of violence against the federal government. Vice President Andrew Johnson, who nobody seemed to like would now become President of the United Sates and would have to handle the chaos that the assassination caused around the nation. Booth and his actions caused Edwin Stanton to conduct the first nationwide police investigation for the assassin and his accomplices with the use of evidence and interrogations of known suspects. The manhunt for Booth was a massive and unprecedented one never before seen in American history. All who supported Booth and his actions were to be punished swiftly and harshly. People around the nation were attacked because they supported Booth or because they even looked like him. The United States was now in an even more state of chaos after the war because they have never experienced such an event as a Presidential assassination. The nation was determined to avenge the death of President Lincoln. The government was able to corner Booth on April 26, 1865 at Garrett's tobacco barn in Port Royal, Virginia and Booth was shot and killed. Once the trials were underway for the accomplices of Booth, the question became how are the criminals going to punished for their crimes against the government? The