John Wilkes Booth was involved with a group of Confederate Operatives and sympathizers. John and several other associates hatched a plot to kidnap Lincoln. Their hopes were to force Lincoln into a settlement to end the war so that would avoid the South’s total defeat. But when Lincoln failed to show, they decided to murder not only Lincoln, but that they should also kill the Vice President and Secretary of State. Believing that Lincoln’s death would restore the Confederacy, Booth knew that Lincoln was the biggest prize of them all, …show more content…
Booth also believed that Lincoln was going to destroy his precious South and overthrow the Constitution. “ Our cause being almost lost.” Booth had written in his diary, “ something decisive and great must be done.” (Hicks).
Their goal was to destabilize the federal government. Booth managed to kill Lincoln and Lucas Paine managed to seriously injure Secretary of State, William Seward (“The Gang That Killed Abraham Lincoln”). This was in front of hundreds of people that saw Booth jump down from the president’s box and yell “ Sic semper Tyrannis!” Which means, “ Thus always to tyrants!” with a gun in his hand and his leg broken from jumping off the