"The objective of the conspiracy was for the Confederacy to accomplish what they failed to accomplish on the battlefield, which was to win the war." - James Solomon, Screenwriter of The Conspirator
This insurrection against the Union government in 1865 should sound familiar to us because we are living through a similar insurrection now. Donald Trump and his white supremacist sympathizers and GOP sycophants are trying to accomplish through violent insurrection and terrorism what they could not accomplish during the election, victory and preserving power and authority.
The plan in 1865 was for the conspirators to simultaneously assassinate Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant at Ford's Theatre, as well as Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward on the night of April 14.
Lincoln was shot and killed by Booth, but Grant avoided the same fate by turning down the Presidential invitation to join the Lincoln's at the theatre because Grant's wife and Mary Todd Lincoln did not get along. Lewis Powell managed to stab Secretary of State William Seward in his home five times in the neck and head, but Seward managed to recover from his wounds. George Atzerodt, who was assigned to assassinate Andrew Johnson, got drunk and then got cold feet.
In the end, Booth was shot and killed in a barn during his capture, while Powell, Atzerodt, David Herold, who led Powell to Seward's home on that fateful night, among others like Dr. Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt were put to death for their roles in the conspiracy. Not all the so-called conspirators deserved the same fate.
The members of Booth's conspiracy saw their beloved Confederacy dying, and in a desperate last attempt to salvage the lost cause, they attempted an insurrection to keep the Civil War going.
By the same token, today's insurrectionists also see their lost cause fading. Their racist President (Trump), the antithesis of Lincoln, failed to win re-election in a landslide, and many in this modern-day Confederacy see this flawed human as their voice for bigotry, hatred and racism. Trump made it acceptable among a large swath of the public to voice their anti-other sentiment. That's why groups like the Proud Boys and other antigovernmental militias support him with such ferocity.
It was not a mistake that many of the modern insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol building this week were carrying Confederate flags. They believe that others, however they define that, as the direct cause of their own personal failures. Much like their beloved leader Trump, they too can not admit that their failures may own. As they see this symbol of their desired America (Trump) being ousted from power by America's better angels, they to are acting out of desperation and are seeking one final way to overthrow a duly-elected government put in place by the majority of Americans.
Remember this, Lincoln was not planning to abolish slavery in the states where it already existed when he was originally elected in 1860, but the South saw him as a massive threat and instead of dealing with him politically, they seceded from the Union and led an armed insurrection. They were traitors to their country because they feared the loss of the way of life as they knew it. Today's insurrectionists feel the same fear. That their country, which they feel should be dominated by white culture, is slipping away and they too will turn to armed treason in an effort to preserve this dastardly ideology.
One can only hope that today's insurrection can be put to bed before 600,000 Americans kill each other in a second Civil War. If we all love our country, we will seek to work together to create a better and more prosperous Union that our founders envisioned.
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