“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in justice, as God gives us to see justice, let us strive to complete the work in which we find ourselves; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall bear the battle, for his widow and his orphan child, to do all that can be achieved and desired for a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all other nations” - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address ( Great Documents of America 19). Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States and perhaps one of the most hated presidents to ever serve. This hatred for President Lincoln came from his choices and actions regarding the national conflict of the time; the Civil War, which occurred after the succession of fourteen Southern states that subsequently divided the nation into Union and Confederate (Notes). The war was about reunifying the nation and that was exactly what Lincoln focused on during his second term (Notes). Many people, however, did not believe that Lincoln's actions were in the best interests of the nation at all, one of these people was the famous actor John Wilkes Booth. John Wilkes Booth was born March 10, 1846 (History.com). After his father's death, Booth dropped out of the military school he had attended and devoted himself to the family profession, acting. He began his career at a theater in Baltimore, then moved to Philadelphia for a short time before finally ending up at the Marshall Theater in Richmond, Virginia (History.com). By 1864 his contempt for the president had grown (history.com). Work had become scarce and after his unsuccessful investment in an oil company he lost most of his money and began to fall into debt, but by this point he had already started... middle of paper...ll .html http://msa .maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/37mun/porttobacco/html/p.html http://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/herold-david.htm http://query. nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf http://totallyhistory.com/david-herold/ http://www.civilwaracademy.com/george-atzerodt.html http://www.crimemuseum.org/Mary_Surratt. html http://www.netstate.com/states/mottoes/va_motto.htm http://www.nndb.com/people/778/000205163/Ito, Tom. Abraham Lincoln. San Deigo, CA: Lucent Books, 1997. Print.O'Reilly, Bill and Martin Dugard. Kill Lincoln. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Print.Swanson, James L. Hunting Lincoln's Assassin. New York, NY: Scholastic Press, 2009. Print.Swanson, James L. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Assassin. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2006. Print.Winik, Jay. April 1865: the month that saved America. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.www.history.com