Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[Wild Bill]

The crowds that came to DC to see Lincoln's lying in state reminds one of a sentence from Macbeth: Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it. This is an excellent example of the moralistic and maudlin newspaper reporting from the 19th century that GATH specializes in.

It also foresees the messianic idolatry that we use to worship Lincoln today. It leaves out the reality of the extra and intra party squabbles of the war, except that GATH does refer to the premature emancipation that General David Hunter established in coastal South Carolina as the predecessor to the actual Emancipation Proclamation. Left out is the fact General John Charles Fremont did the same in Missouri, but then Fremont was not at the funeral as was Hunter. But Hunter and Fremont were discredited generals and poor politicians.