590. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Death at the Theatre (Part 1)

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 18.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After passing the 13th amendment, in the closing weeks of the brutal American Civil War, what did president Abraham Lincoln - recently re-elected - do next to inflame his detractors? Crippled with guilt for the death and destruction of the war, was he indeed a unionist tyrant? What did Lincoln decide to do with the defeated rebel states? And, with time ticking for Lincoln’s life, who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor bent on Lincoln’s destruction? Join Dominic and Tom as they launch into the final days of one of America’s greatest presidents; Abraham Lincoln. Who would be his assassin, and where would he meet this tragic reckoning? The Rest Is History Club: Become a member for exclusive bonus content, early access to full series and live show tickets, ad-free listening, our exclusive newsletter, discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, and our members’ chatroom on Discord. Just head to therestishistory.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestishistory. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for listening to The Rest is History.
0:02.3	For weekly bonus episodes,
0:04.0	add free listening, early access to series,
0:06.8	and membership of our much-loved chat community,
0:09.5	go to therestishistory.com and join the club.
0:13.2	That is, the rest is history.com. My fellow countrymen, fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills, that it
0:42.7	continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be
0:51.2	sunk, until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another
0:58.0	drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago. So still it must be said,
1:07.5	the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
1:13.3	With malice toward none, with charity for all,
1:18.6	with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.
1:23.9	Let us strive on to finish the work we are in,
1:32.1	to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve
1:40.9	and cherish, a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
1:51.3	The unmistakable tones there of Daniel Day Lewis playing Abraham Lincoln, of course,
1:57.3	and Abe was speaking there at his second inauguration as President of the
2:02.3	United States on the 4th of March 1865, and Dominic, it is a great supreme moment of triumph, isn't it?
2:10.4	Lincoln has just been re-elected, and victory for the North, for the Union that Lincoln has
2:16.8	been leading throughout the Civil War is just
2:19.4	weeks away.
2:20.7	But what's amazing about that speech is how muted any sense of triumphalism is.
	...

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