JWB and Fame

[Laurie Verge]

I agree that Booth's "lust for fame" played a role in the eventual plotting against Lincoln, but I still believe that it was his strong convictions on politics, specifically republicanism (with a little "r") and constitutional rights, that got him so riled up from the very beginning of the Civil War.

As for his proclivity to drink, I don't see him any different than 85% of the men during the 19th century. Partaking of alcohol was prevalent, but that did not always lead to alcoholism - the two are totally different in my mind. I also tend to think that the rate of alcoholism was higher in the lower classes in America. I have often wondered how much of Junius Booth's "alcoholism" was really a streak of insanity coming through which was interpreted as him being an alcoholic.

My great-grandparents, the Huntts, who are a footnote in the assassination story, were temperance people. In those days, the family was part of the burdgeoning Methodist movement in Maryland. They belonged to a temperance group known as the Sons of Jonadab. Their youngest child, my grandmother, would touch nothing but wine to her dying day.