Booth's Escape Route

[Natty]

Just because I'm obviously in the minority here doesn't mean I'm wrong, or that this is the generally-held opinion about Powell or his actions from other scholars and writers.

Until Betty Ownsbey came along, not all that much was known about Lewis Powell's character.
Generally-held opinions should not be upheld if they can be revised. If we clung to everything dusty and outdated, we'd be stagnating, my friend.

I'm well aware of what cold-blooded means and it's a phrase that fits. To jump on a man who is defenseless and an invalid with a knife and a gun is a textbook definition.

Unfortunately a textbook definition is something you CAN'T revise, just to fit your own personal wishes. It doesn't matter who you attack; if you feel the way Lewis Powell did during and after the attack, you are by definition not a cold blooded killer.

I don't care one whit that they believed it to be justified. When Powell was a soldier shooting at someone who had the ability to fight back, that's one thing, but how anyone could believe otherwise about the attacks on Seward and his family just boggles my mind.
I daresay had Ulric Dahlgren actually carried out his raid and did to Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet what happened to Lincoln and Seward, most people here would have found it to be unconscionable.

I never justified it. It was a terrible attack, without question. Still, regardless of how morally offensive one might find it, Lewis Powell was not a cold blooded killer. You can't bend the facts just because you take offense with something.